Alan Milburn: Serious questions have to be answered

The company says it is switching production from its Rothmans plant in the town to Southampton, with the loss of almost 500 jobs.

Union officials claim the closure could lead to a further 5,000 job losses in associated industries throughout the area.

Mr Milburn is heading a task force aimed at saving the jobs, which is another bitter blow to manufacturing in the north-east of England.

Mr Milburn said: "There are important questions that have now got to be asked of the company about why it has chosen the Southamptom factory over darlington.

"Certainly, I intend to meet with the company as soon as possible to put those questions to them.

"We have to do everything we can to establish why the company has taken this decision.

"It must be pressed as to why it has chosen to locate all of its UK production in probably the most costly part of the country in Southampton, rather than the North East."

BAT says it plans to shut the factory by the end of 2004 and transfer work to a larger plant at Southampton.

About 120 million cigarettes are made at the factory everyday

Darlington Council leader John Williams says he is pledged to fighting the company's closure plan.

He said: "You don't lose 500 well-paid manufacturing jobs in a town like Darlington, without it having a serious impact on the local economy.

"That will be one of the main jobs of the task force we are setting up, to address the potential fallout from these job losses.

"A big company like BAT doesn't make an announcement like this and then easily change its mind.

"So we have got to climb a mountain to persuade them to change their mind.

"But we will try our best to make sure this plant stays open."

Leaders of the Amicus union expressed their anger that they were not consulted over the closure of the factory and said it was a "smack in the face" to the staff who contributed to �2.7bn profit for BAT in 2002.

Paul Adams, BAT's managing director said: "We very much regret job losses, especially when our people contribute so much to the group's success.

"However, we are committed to improving productivity in order to strengthen our competitive position in the world, deliver profit growth, and ensure the continued long-term success of the group."

BAT said about 90% of output from the two UK factories was exported outside the European Union.