A LABOUR Party elder has slammed as “unbelievable” Ann Widdecombe’s comments that factories “close all the time”.

Andrew Adonis, a Labour peer standing against Miss Widdecombe in tomorrow’s European Parliament elections, claimed the former Conservative minister’s support the UK’s exit from the EU on World Trade Organisation rules would result in the destruction of the single market and the loss of thousands of jobs.

The peer’s blast follows comments from Ann Widdecombe over the closure of Honda’s South Marston car plant by 2021. The car giant has blamed the closure on changes to the global car market, rather than Brexit. Asked what her message was for affected Honda workers, Miss Widdecombe told the Advertiser: “Listen to your management. Factories close all the time. Or they move.”

This afternoon, Remainer Lord Adonis criticised those remarks.

“We’ve got to stop Brexit. It’s a disaster. A job destroying disaster,” he said.

“Honda’s closure will be devastating for Swindon and we should be doing all in our power to stop it. That means taking urgent action to deal with the consequences, including big training schemes and ploughing the proceeds of the sale of the Swindon Town stadium into training and job creation in the town.

“But we have to deal with the causes of the closure and be in no doubt that the fundamental cause is Brexit. The management is too polite to blame the government.”

He added: “What makes Ann Widdecombe’s remarks even more obscene is that Margaret Thatcher, who she worships actually brought Japanese car manufacturers to this country in the 1980s starting with Nissan following the creation of the single market.

“Ann Widdecombe proposes to destroy the single market and is utterly unapologetic about the fact that tens of thousands of people stand to lose their jobs and their livelihoods. Swindon as a town will be undermined by her policy of a no deal Brexit. I think it is an utter disgrace she is standing in this election.”

Lord Adonis said he was campaigning for a second referendum, with voters given the option for Britain to remain in the EU. His pledge to campaign “night and day for Swindon to stay in the EU” may prove unpopular in the town, where just shy of 55 per cent of people voted to Leave in the 2016 referendum.