The government has promised urgent action for the Vauxhall car workers who were made redundant on Tuesday.

In an emergency statement to the House of Commons the trade and industry secretary, Stephen Byers, blamed over capacity and European market conditions for the 2000 job losses which will go when car production ends at the Luton plant.

Byers argued that the job cuts were part of a world-wide programme announced by General Motors because of a shift towards smaller cars. He claimed a new van would safeguard the remaining jobs at the plant and confirmed that the 4000 jobs at the sister plant in Elsmere would also be secure.

"Our efforts must be directed to those affected in the local area. The challenge now is to provide new job opportunities for the future to replace those jobs lost in yesterday's announcement," he said.

The minister promised "rapid response" units, an on-site job shop and a fast-track benefits service to help the unemployed deal with the complex benefit forms.

Tory industry spokesman David Heathcoat Amory accused Byers of failing to act following redundancies at Ford's Dagenham plant, the Rover sale fiasco and reports that Nissan's Sunderland plant may also be about to make job cuts. He said: "The ending of car production at Luton by Vauxhall is indeed a terrible blow. Everything must be done to help those affected by these redundancies. This is not an isolated case. It's part of a very damaging series of closures that's been accelerating in recent months."

He blamed excessive regulation by the government for the crisis in the motor industry. "We warned him [Byers] about this and we've been telling him for months and we are now starting to see the results of that complacency," said Heathcoat Amory.