And Ford’s UK manufacturing operations too, should the worst happen to its parent company.
The most likely option in the US for cash-strapped General Motors seems to be some sort of pre-arranged bankruptcy as US legislators seem to think that any bail-out loan will just follow all those other billions of dollars down the drain.
But the same legislators are likely to insist that any government money that is eventually pumped in goes to save American jobs rather than British ones.
Ford is in a less parlous state but still reckons it needs a few billion to tide it over and it too is a big employer in Britain.
GM and Ford are actually better manufacturers outside the US than in these days but that won’t help their British offshoots if the money suddenly dries up.
Which might be the reason business secretary Lord Mandelson has spent so much time boning up on the motor industry recently.
[Image Attribution: Kevin.Ward]