Tony Blair made a personal appeal to German chancellor Gerhard Schroder to use his influence to save Rover’s Longbridge plant.
Stephen Byers, the trade and industry secretary, made a separate plea to Rover parent company BMW.
Speculation is rife that BMW could be the target of a takeover bid which would put pressure on new chairman Joachim Milberg to take tougher action with Rover.
Financial Times 09/02/99 page 22, page 25
The Times 09/02/99 page 25
The Daily Telegraph 09/02/99 page 1, page 11, page 21 (Editorial Comment)
The Independent 09/02/99 page 2, page 5, page 15 (Business Outlook), page 5 (The Tuesday Review)
The Guardian 09/02/99 page 19
