JEREMY CORBYN told rail engineers today that the “hollowing out” of British manufacturing over the last 40 years is mainly down to the Tories allowing public contracts to be “farmed out” overseas.

He and Labour MP for Derby North Chris Williamson donned hi-vis jackets and workers’ baseball caps to tour Bombardier’s site in Derby and check out a new train engineers had been making.

The Labour leader said that the Tories are “bad for workers and bad for business” after official figures showed that the number of people making trains in Britain has fallen by 12.5 per cent since 2011.

He accused the government of “farming out major public contracts overseas,” such as those for transport, while ignoring the need for decent jobs in Britain.

The official statistics show that since the Tories took over in 2010, employment turnover from rail manufacturing industries has declined by more than 10 per cent.

Mr Corbyn said: “Our economy has become too narrowly focused, with the Conservatives prioritising speculative interests in the City of London and ignoring the needs of our communities.

“The next Labour government will throw its weight behind British manufacturing and reprogramme our economy.”

His visit coincided with the Unite’s charge that the government’s shipbuilding industry is “in tatters,” following the Ministry of Defence decision to freeze a competition to build new Type 31e frigates in Britain.

The freeze, which Unite says risks “hollowing out” Britain’s shipbuilding capacity, was labelled a “slap in the face” to working-class communities up and down the country.

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said: “The government needs to urgently rethink its decision to freeze the

Type 31e frigate programme and guarantee that the navy’s new support ships are built in the UK using UK steel.

“Anything less will be viewed as a snub and a betrayal by workers and their families in shipbuilding and manufacturing communities across the UK.”