Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is to meet the bosses of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and the Unite union early next week to discuss the impact of expected large-scale job cuts at the carmaker.
JLR confirmed it is opening a voluntary redundancy programme, though the company has not disclosed the number of positions at risk. According to reports, as many as 4,000 jobs may be lost due to the impact of tariffs and a drop in sales.
The cuts are believed to affect mainly white-collar workers. JLR said the programme would "simplify" the business and "improve efficiency and build greater resilience."
"Today, we informed our colleagues, and trade union partners that JLR is opening a voluntary redundancy programme offering salaried and management team members the opportunity to leave the business," a company spokesperson said. "We will share further information with our colleagues first." The company did not rule out the possibility of some compulsory redundancies.
Reynolds told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the meeting would focus on ways to "mitigate any job losses" but ruled out a bailout for the company.
"A company the size of JLR, which is a huge British success story, at various times in its business cycle, the number of, directly, people it employs will change," Reynolds said. "If this is about making sure over time that the workforce is right to make the business as competitive as possible, that's the conversation we need to have."
He said there would be no support "if it's to bail people out", but left open the possibility of a "long-term investment in the future" of the company. Reynolds also said he had spoken with West Midlands mayor Richard Parker about supporting the business and its staff.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the union had been warning about a "perfect storm" hanging over the automotive industry for some time.
"Death by a thousand cuts has been going on under the nose of successive governments," she said. Graham added that there had been "intensive" discussions over the weekend about mitigating job losses.
The Liberal Democrats said the news would be "devastating" for JLR staff and called on Chancellor John Healey to use an upcoming speech in the Midlands to offer "support for those jobs at risk."
"This development lays bare that the government's growth mission is falling far short," said Sarah Olney, the party's business spokesperson.
Healey is preparing to deliver a speech in the Midlands on Monday promising to boost economic growth by changing how the government values investment in infrastructure such as transport and housing. JLR is based in Coventry, in the West Midlands.
Reynolds was also asked about the UK's electric vehicle sales target, which requires manufacturers to ensure a rising percentage of the cars they sell each year are zero-emissions, reaching 80% by 2030. He said one of the first actions he had taken as Business Secretary was to give the industry more flexibility in working towards that goal, and that a further consultation was under way.
"It's not where it needs to be and that's why we're willing to change the regulation to work with where consumer demand is and the industry," he said.
The redundancy announcement comes roughly a year after a cyber attack in September 2025 shut down all manufacturing at JLR for several weeks, meaning no vehicles were produced during that period. The disruption led to a 27% drop in overall production at the company.
The total cost of the cyber attack and the resulting loss of manufacturing was estimated at £1.9 billion. In June, JLR announced plans to cut approximately £1.7 billion in costs over the coming years as part of its recovery, with savings expected from areas including materials, warranty and fixed costs.
In July, the company said fewer than 300 people would leave the firm under cost-saving plans announced at that time.
JLR employs approximately 30,000 people in its UK operations and around 10,000 more at plants overseas. It is one of the West Midlands' largest employers.
