Trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers yesterday told MPs that the government would do all it can to help the 3,200 people who will lose jobs at a Scottish Motorola plant.

A Scottish executive task force with £10 million in funding is looking for a buyer for the Bathgate works and seeking to secure new jobs for its workers.

In Commons clashes, the Conservatives said that the closure, which is to proceed despite pleas from ministers, has reduced the role of the DTI to "that of a spectator".

Tory trade and industry spokesman, David Heathcoat-Amory, told MPs that the jobs could not be saved "after four years of endless increases in red tape" which had "undermined our competitiveness".

Byers replied that it was "extremely difficult" for individuals when industries restructure "in the face of change". He repeated Gordon Brown's line that no country can insulate itself from global events but that government policies had put the UK in a better position to cope with change.