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As Brexit uncertainty looms and the chances of never leaving the EU grow, reports from 2011 have re-emerged, which claim EU rules killed off British industries and thousands of jobs in one fell swoop. Eight years ago, ministers were forced to hand Germany a £1.5billion train deal instead of to Bombardier, a British-based firm. The move cost 1,400 British jobs as the firm had to make people redundant at its plant in Derby after failing to win the contract to produce rolling stock for London's Thameslink network.

Francis Paonessa, president of Bombardier's passenger division for the UK, said at the time: "We regret this outcome, but without new orders we cannot maintain the current level of employment and activity at Derby." The job losses provoked a furious reaction from the unions, who claimed the decision to award the contract to German company Siemens was a "scandal". Bob Crow, general secretary of rail workers' union the RMT, told the Daily Telegraph: "It's a scandal that the Government are colluding with the European Union in a policy of industrial vandalism that would wipe out train building in the nation that gave the railways to the world. "We will fight this stitch-up tooth and nail from the shop floor to the benches of the House of Commons."

EU rules “killed off” British industries and thousands of jobs

Chairman of Bombardier Colin Walton poses outside the Bombadier assembly plant

However, then Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said the Government had no choice but to award the contract to the Siemens-led consortium because of the failure of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government to include conditions in the tender which would have made it possible to give work to a British-based firm under "EU procurement rules". Mr Hammond said: "The only option available to us was to award the contract to the bidder who made the highest value-for-money bid on the basis of the criteria Labour set out when they launched this procurement in 2008. "I think the question is whether the procurement was correctly framed. "The way some of our continental partners approach these things is to look more strategically at the support of the domestic supply chain.

Mr Hammond said the the Government had no choice but to award the contract to Siemens

Theresa May today urged MPs to make an “honourable compromise” and back her deal