BL not seeking government aid

DAILY MIRROR

Lord Stokes denied reports that the Government might take a controlling stake in his company — Britain's biggest exporters — for up to £70,000,000. Lord Stokes , who is chairman of the company, said: "We have not asked the Government for money . We have no plan to do so."

A spokesman for Counter Information Services , a left wing group of academics and journalists which produced a critical report on British Leyland last year , said yesterday: "I don't think the company is in a position to survive. It has not got enough cash to carry on . I think it will be at least partly nationalised.“

The company has admitted that it was " clobbered " by the three - day week. But it insists that the after tax profits £27,800,000 in the last financial year were enough to cope with the problems the power crisis caused.

A spokesman said yesterday: "The resources available to us are sufficient to meet all our financial requirements . We have very substantial facilities with the banks.”

The rumours of financial trouble have been fanned by labour disputes at the company's Cowley works , which produce a third of its cars.