Dear readers — welcome to October! And a big, special welcome to the 44 members who joined us over the weekend. We are very happy to have you. If you have any tip-offs for us, do reach out at editor@birminghamdispatch.co.uk
Today, we have the latest on the crushing impact of the Jaguar Land Rover cyber attack on the automotive industry supply chain. JLR is re-starting some of its production today but will the government step in to help smaller firms who are suffering from the delays? That’s today’s Big Story.
Also today, Corbyn’s Your Party launched in Birmingham on Sunday, causing ire for Birmingham Labour as several of its councillors jumped ship. Plus, Selfridges is struggling and the Caledonian sleeper is coming to Brum. Also, a Dispatch political scoop has made waves.
Catch up and coming up:
- Don’t miss Kate’s weekend exposé of one of the men behind the flag craze in Stirchley. (Spoiler: he lives in Bromsgrove and is an alleged scammer).
- Catch up on Sam’s explainer on the reasons why one of Brum’s major developments has been delayed again and again.
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Photo of the week
Buddhist monks view Ozzy the Bull at New Street Station. Photo: Samuel McIlhagga. Know about the monks’ visit? Let us know in the comments.
Big Story: 'Help us!' JLR supply chain small firms at risk of collapse call for government support
Top line: Smaller businesses that supply parts for Jaguar Land Rover cars say they are on the brink of collapse. Some have considered bank loans, only to find they’d need to put up their family homes as a guarantee.
Context: After suffering a major cyber attack in August, JLR has been in shutdown since early September. Some production is due to re-start today but many smaller companies in the supply chain are struggling. The government has put up a £1.5bn loan guarantee to JLR, but firms lower down the supply chain are now calling for direct help.
Labour to the rescue? Last week, business secretary Peter Kyle announced the government would underwrite a commercial loan of £1.5bn to JLR, with the expectation that the benefits would trickle down the supply chain. However, several people within the automotive industry told the Guardian they thought the plan had been rushed out in time for Labour conference.
Tears for tiers: There are at least a couple of tiers supporting JLR’s manufacturing. Tier one assembles components of parts that are used to make the cars, while tier two supplies the smaller parts. Tier one can take up to 60 days to pay invoices from tier two, so even if JLR’s loan allows for new jobs from the top, the money will take time to trickle down.
Direct intervention: The Confederation of British Metalforming (CBM) is a lobby group that represents many JLR suppliers and they’ve called for direct government intervention, further down the chain. Steve Morley, the CBM’s president, told the Guardian: “This is the only way we can get money quickly to where it is needed most, to prevent the supply chain from collapsing.”
‘On the line’: Michael Beese, the managing director of Genex UK, which presses metal parts for several suppliers to JLR, said to get an expensive loan from commercial banks, suppliers would need to give personal guarantees that could expose them to losing their houses and other assets. He said: “Why should I put my business and family home on the line when I’ve done nothing wrong?”
Cash flow crisis: Meanwhile, workers are being laid off. Coventry-based Evtec Automotive, which employs about 600 people, said it had probably laid off about 500. Chairman David Roberts told the BBC: “We're paying them on 80% of their normal pay. That's coming out of our cash flow, obviously.”
Bottom line: While the industry will be encouraged by today’s cautious reboot of some of JLR’s production, much of their supply chain is stuck in limbo. Beese is quoted on the BBC today, saying: “I think for the staff it's very concerning, worrying, stressful – and I think I'm sharing those same feelings as well.”
Brum in Brief
✊ The Birmingham launch of Corbyn’s Your Party at the New Bingley Hall in Hockley yesterday had a tinge of deja vu about it. A confusing opening complete with chants of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” that trailed off didn’t help matters. Plus, it took an hour to sign in the 600 guests who had arrived on time for a 3pm start. But the speeches, once they got underway, were impassioned calls for a return to parliamentary socialism. Notably, there were repeated references to Corbyn as the “leader”, suggesting his co-leadership with Zarah Sultana has either ended or is being downplayed by this particular cohort. Four members of the audience received a large round of applause — all ex-Labour councillors who have joined Corbyn and his Independent Alliance. Amer Khan (Stockland Green), Rinkall Shergill (Holyhead) and Chaman Lal (Soho and the Jewellery Quarter) had been deselected by Labour, while Mohammed Idrees (Alum Rock) had announced his retirement from politics before making the surprise move. The Dispatch understands the lack of loyalty from the latter two has particularly angered the Birmingham Labour hierarchy.
🏴 Birmingham will get a direct, overnight link to Scotland by train with the Caledonian Sleeper set to stop at Birmingham International from 15 January. Caledonian Sleeper's interim managing director Graham Kelly told the BBC that research suggested there was a demand for the service in the West Midlands and would hopefully boost tourism both here and in Scotland. The service will run six days a week, with no trains on Saturday nights. Who’s up for a deep fried mars bar and a walk up Arthur’s Seat?
🚨 Birmingham Labour is reviewing claims made by Small Heath councillor Saqib Khan after The Dispatch revealed evidence that he attended his brother’s wedding in Kashmir while the sibling was on the run from police. In 2019, Fahan Khan was under investigation for dealing crack cocaine and heroin to Aylesbury after which he fled the country. He was convicted of the charges, along with 19 others, last year. Photos shared by The Dispatch appear to show that Cllr Khan attended his brother’s wedding day in June 2023, prompting questions about whether he had alerted the police to Fahan’s whereabouts and if he knows where his brother currently lives. The story was picked up by the Daily Mail and Birmingham Live and the local Labour party has confirmed it will be reviewing the councillor’s claim that he had no idea about the charges when he joined the event.
📉 Selfridges has recorded losses for the fifth year in a row, blaming a drop in international tourists shopping for luxury goods, according to the Guardian. The four-strong chain of stores — which, of course, includes Brum’s iconic shop by the Bullring — reported a 7% decline in sales in the 48 weeks up to 4 January 2025. That’s compared with £835m recorded for the 53 weeks of the previous year. Losses amount to £16m, closing the gap on the previous year’s £42m but the company has not made a pre-tax profit since 2019, before the pandemic. The retailer said it had been hit badly by the axeing of tax-free shopping for tourists with luxury shoppers more inclined to visit Paris or Milan since the change. They added that current high cost of living has exacerbated the issue, with customers less likely to splash the cash.
A note from the editor: Hello; I have your attention for just a minute? Did you catch our Saturday exclusive, exposing the non-existent company that’s collecting donations for flag raising operations in Birmingham? Ryan Bridge, the management consultant behind the website raisethecolours.org.uk – claims that his flag fundraising and company is “100% legitimate”, although he was unable to provide details. Bridge is one of several individuals with competing claims to having ‘founded’ flag-raising in Birmingham. He was recently interviewed on GB News. None of his claims were fact-checked.
Only The Dispatch is doing this sort of on-the-ground reporting. We managed to get Bridge on the phone to answer questions, and contacted a source in Spain who could give us more details on an investigation police are conducting there into a scamming operation Bridge is accused of being involved with.
This is what high-quality local journalism looks like. And we produce a lot of it, currently with only a two-person crew, soon to be three as we’re investing further in The Dispatch and hiring a new reporter. This is partly funded by our parent company, who’ve raised money for the purpose. But to make The Dispatch work financially, we want to be fully financially independent and local, paying our way through reader subscriptions only. Which is why we’re trying to add 200 new subscribers to our books by the end of October. After this weekend, we’ve only got 150 left to go.
You’re reading this because you’re currently one of our nearly 25,000 beloved free subscribers. But if you like what The Dispatch is doing, if you think it’s important, both for you and for Birmingham, consider backing us for just £1 a month for the first three months. We want to restore pride in local journalism — and where we live — through our reporting. Birmingham deserves the best. If you believe that too, sign up today to get all of our members’ issues, plus access to exclusive events and early-bird tickets. Just click the button below to be part of the change.
Quick Hits
🚒 Four treated after New Street station Premier Inn hotel blaze (BBC).
⛐ 27 roads in Birmingham are being reduced from 40mph to 30mph. (BBC).
📖 Former editor of the Birmingham Post publishes first novel at age 92. (Hold the Front Page).
🪧 Striking bin workers protest outside the home secretary’s constituency office in the Jewellery Quarter (BBC).
‼️ A ‘Raise the Colours’ activist and a Stirchley local’s argument about flag raising has gone viral. (X)
🍉 Alleged pro-Palestine protestors in court over £1 million damaged to Wolverhampton factory (Birmingham Mail).
🚊Dudley tram link could be delayed by up to a year (Express and Star).
Media picks
📖 Rom com writer and proud Brummie Mike Gayle has been profiled in The Times where he discusses his large vinyl collection, the writers who have inspired him and his upbringing in Quinton. A former agony uncle for teen girl magazines, he reveals the surprisingly harsh nature of his readers’ feedback: “if they didn’t like what you’d written, they’d cut it up and post it to you. You would be dead to them.”
📰 We learnt that the world’s oldest Qu'ran happens to be in Birmingham, from this Spectator article from a few months back. While the writer had to go to Uzbekistan to discover this, Brummies can find out more from the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham. It is part of the Mingana Collection of 3000 Middle Eastern manuscripts and the Qu’ran manuscript contains parts of surahs 18-20 of the Islamic holy book, written on parchment in an early form of Arabic script known as Hijazi.
Our to do list
🎺 On Tuesday, Nigerian trumpeter Etuk Ubong is bringing his spiritually inflected Afrobeat/Jazz infusion to the Jam House. Tickets from £12.
🎭 On Thursday, Birmingham Comedy Festival is at The Button Factory where you’ll get a meal and a drink alongside some laughs. Tickets from £16.96 — £10 from every sale goes to Birmingham Mind.
🎃 Halloween’s a-coming — get your scares in early and catch this performance of Dracula at the Black Box Theatre on Friday. Tickets from £16.96.
📷 These photo walks with the artist Black Country Type have proved really popular. On Sunday, Tom Hicks will be leading a guided walk around the Jewellery Quarter so you can take your own documentary photographs. Tickets £15.
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