There are “no discussions around taxpayers’ money” to prop up Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) suppliers, according to the prime minister’s official spokesman, as the carmaker grapples a lengthening production shutdown following last month’s cyber attack.

JLR factories fell silent more than two weeks ago. While it is damaging for the company, it represents a perilous loss of business for the supply chain which has also been forced to send workers home.

Some have already lost their jobs.

Unions and the business and trade committee of MPs were among those to request the possibility of aid to prevent job losses and employers going bust as the disruption drags on.

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What happened?

It was revealed on 1 September that global production at JLR had been stopped following a cyber attack.

IT systems were taken offline by the company under efforts to limit penetration and damage.

The company appeared confident initially that manufacturing could resume but restart dates have been consistently put back.

What damage was done?

Jaguar Land Rover has said very little about the extent of the attack.

But it admitted last week that some data had been accessed. It gave no further details.

Who is to blame?

A criminal investigation is continuing.

A group of English-speaking hackers claimed responsibility for the JLR attack via a Telegram platform called Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, an amalgamation of the names of hacking groups Scattered Spider, Lapsus$ and ShinyHunters.

Scattered Spider, a loose group of relatively young hackers, were behind the Co-Op, Harrods and M&S attacks earlier in the year.

It is widely believed that M&S paid a sum to regain control of its systems after it was targeted with ransomware though it has refused to confirm if this was the case.

How is this affecting JLR as a business?

JLR typically produces about 1,000 vehicles a day.

Production staff are being paid but kept away from plants at Halewood on Merseyside, Solihull in the West Midlands, and its engine factory in Wolverhampton. It is the same story for workers at sites in Slovakia, China and India.

JLR revealed on Tuesday that production lines would now remain shut until at least 24 September.

David Bailey, professor of business economics at the Birmingham Business School, told the PA news agency: “The value of cars usually made at the sites means that around £1.7bn worth of vehicles will not have been produced, and I’d estimate that would have an initial impact of around £120m on profits.”

JLR achieved a pre-tax profit of £2.5bn for the financial year ending 31 March 2025, so should be able to absorb such a hit.

Sales and service operations continue as normal at its retail partners but the longer the disruption goes on, so do the risks to its inventories and bottom line.

Why does its supply chain need help?

This is the part of the operation that was always bound to suffer most in the event of a global JLR production shutdown.

No manufacturing means no need for parts.

The company usually depends on a ‘just in time’ supply chain to feed its factories and keep production lines running smoothly.

The Unite union has appealed for a COVID-style furlough scheme to prevent job losses and the risk of affected companies, often small or medium-sized firms, being forced out of business.

JLR’s operations are understood to directly support more than 100,000 jobs in the UK though that sum doubles through indirect roles.

The loss of any major supplier would risk further production delays once JLR’s IT systems are back online.

It is currently understood that the vast majority of directly affected workers remain in their jobs but have either been sent home or are on restricted tasks.

JLR suppliers Evtec, WHS Plastics, SurTec and OPmobility have had to temporarily lay off roughly 6,000 staff while a growing number of other firms are cutting workers, with temporary or contracted workers most likely to be affected.

What has the government said?

In addition to the remarks by the PM’s official spokesman, minister for industry Chris McDonald told Sky News: “We know this is a worrying time for those affected by this incident and our cyber experts are supporting JLR to help them resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

“I met the company today to discuss their plans to resolve this issue and get production started again, and we continue to discuss the impact on the supply chain.”

An investigation has been launched into a former Reform MP over alleged racial abuse against a Sky News journalist.

The parliamentary standards commissioner is investigating James McMurdock, who was elected as a Reform MP last year but suspended himself after allegations emerged over loans he claimed during the pandemic.

Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative MP, wrote to the watchdog in August to urge an investigation into Mr McMurdock’s “use of social media to apparently facilitate racial abuse” against Sky News political correspondent Mhari Aurora.

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The standards commissioner has now confirmed it will consider allegations that Mr McMurdock started an “N-Tower” on social media by posting the single letter “N” under an X post that was critical of Aurora.

This was described by Mr Obese-Jecty as “a means of using a racial slur against an individual on an online platform whilst circumventing moderation that would remove racially abusive content”.

He added: “The practice involves spelling out a racial slur vertically with each individual posting a single letter of the word in order to spell it vertically” as the posts appear below each other.

Mr McMurdock is under investigation for potentially breaching rule 11 of the House of Commons Code of Conduct.

This states: “Members shall never undertake any action which would cause significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, or of its Members generally.”

Mr Obese-Jecty said in his complaint that the alleged actions of the former Reform MP “reflect a lack of adherence” to the seven principles of public life.

He said by “deleting the post without challenging the subsequent spelling” that was started by him, Mr McMurdock showed a “failure to challenge poor behaviour” and “absence of moral courage”.

Mr Obese-Jecty added: “Having repeatedly experienced this specific type of online racial abuse myself I am horrified that a fellow member of parliament would apparently see this as a legitimate means of challenging a Westminster lobby journalist in a public forum.

“I sincerely hope that there is a coherent and believable explanation for this horrendous action.”

At the time, Mr McMurdock appeared to deny he made the post, sharing a screenshot of X’s AI assistant Grok claiming he never posted the letter N, based on a screenshot of the N-Tower.

Grok is a large language model, which is known to be inaccurate.

He added that Mr Obese-Jecty’s “complaint regarding the alleged posting of a single letter is beyond ridiculous”.

Mr McMurdock has been contacted for comment.

Another former Conservative MP has defected to Reform UK.

Maria Caulfield, who served as the MP for Lewes for nearly a decade, as well as a government minister, is the 13th ex-Tory to join Nigel Farage’s party, which continues to gather momentum.

The announcement of her move on Tuesday follows sitting MP Danny Kruger’s decision to defect yesterday and head up Reform’s work to prepare for government.

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Ms Caulfield, a former health minister, told GB News: “If you are Conservative right-minded, then the future is Reform. The country is going to change a lot.

“The same people who thought that Brexit would not happen think that Reform will not happen. They are in for a shock.”

She added: “I have joined. My husband joined a few months ago and I joined a month ago.”

Reacting to the defection, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch admitted her party is having a “tough and bumpy time”, but reiterated her argument that it takes time to develop policies, and called on the public and her party to be patient.

Ms Caulfield is a former nurse, and her first ministerial job came in 2021, when she joined the Department for Health in Boris Johnson’s government.

After a spell on the backbenches during the brief premiership of Liz Truss, she was brought back into government under Rishi Sunak, becoming the minister responsible for mental health and women’s health.

She lost her seat at the 2024 general election to the Liberal Democrats, with her vote share having plummeted by nearly 22%.

‘We need to hold our nerve’

Her announcement follows that of Danny Kruger, the MP for East Wiltshire, who announced his move at a press conference alongside Nigel Farage on Monday.

He said the Conservative Party is “over”, and Reform is now the primary vehicle for conservatism.

But shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said his analysis was “profoundly wrong”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It is certainly the case that we had a devastating defeat about a year ago, that we lost that connection with the electorate, that trust with the electorate, and it is also true that it will take us time to rebuild that.”

He added: “We need to hold our nerve.”