Hundreds of workers at firms which deal with Bombardier could lose their jobs too after the train-maker lost out on the lucrative Government contract to build new carriages.
Research for Unite among 125 companies supplying Bombardier found almost half relied on the firm for five per cent of their sales, while a similar number relied almost entirely on the Derby-based manufacturer.
About 1,400 workers at Bombardier face redundancy after the Government’s decision to hand the contract to German company Siemens, but the Unite survey by Survation showed thousands more jobs were at risk at firms across the country, as well as in Derby, Nottingham and Chesterfield.
UKIP’s East Midlands MEP Derek Clark said: "The decision to Research for Unite showing many smaller companies will also lose out as well as Bombardier in the Thameslink contract. Any big manufacturer depends on a large number of smaller companies to supply them with parts.
"No-one should be surprised that the 1,200 made redundant by Bombardier will be just the first of several hundred more unfortunate people who have done nothing wrong.
"Losing this contract will be an enormous blow to Derby and to Derbyshire as a whole.
"This contract should never have gone to Siemens with their proven track record of corruption where they have been fined even by the EU itself for offering bribes to secure contracts.
"Losing this contract makes us the laughing stock of Europe when you consider that in Germany, France and Spain practically all such contracts go to national firms. There is nothing wrong with that, there is everything wrong with our Government not supporting British industry in the same kind of way.
"It didn't take long for, "British jobs for British Workers" quote to be forgotten.
"Recent news of another contract, for Cross Rail, is being considered more closely by the Government than was the Thameslink contract. The Government knows it got Thameslink wrong but is frightened to admit it."
