Chip plant staff accuse Shapps of putting 600 jobs at risk

WORKERS at Welsh semiconductor plant Newport Wafer Fab have accused Grant Shapps of putting 600 jobs at “grave risk” in the run-up to Christmas by blocking a Chinese-backed takeover.

The Business Secretary last week announced that Chinese-owned Nexperia will be forced to unwind its £63m takeover on national security grounds.

Engineers at Nexperia Newport Staff Association have written to Mr Shapps: “You must see sense and protect our jobs by allowing Nexperia to keep their Newport factory.”

Mr Shapps told MPS yesterday that the final decision had been made “fairly”. Dutch chipmaker Nexperia agreed to buy the factory, which was on the brink of collapse, in 2021.

The deal was called in under national security laws, this May. Nexperia is controlled by China’s Wingtech, which is partly owned by the Chinese state.

Mr Shapps said the takeover had the potential to “undermine UK capabilities” in advanced semiconductor manufacturing and risked future projects “relevant to national security”.

Nexperia has been ordered to sell 86pc of its stake in Newport Wafer Fab. It has said it will appeal. The decision is a test of Britain’s new National Security and Investment Act, which gives ministers powers over the sale of potentially strategic technology companies.

Workers at the plant called the ban a “deeply political decision” and a “betrayal of our team”. They added: “No international company in its right mind would ever invest in the UK after this.”

Potential bidders now circling include Ron Black, the former chief executive of Imagination Technologies, who has £300m earmarked to bail out the factory, and Drew Nelson, the former owner of Newport Wafer Fab who sold it to Nexperia.

Staff at the plant have said Nexperia’s ownership brought certainty, added 100 jobs and led to bonuses.