MG ROVER could still be successfully making cars if the original bid for the Longbridge carmaker had been accepted instead of the rival take over led by the discredited Phoenix Four.

That's the message from Bromsgrove's MP Julie Kirkbride, who is a member of the taskforce set up after the firm's collapse.

"If we could put back the clock and had the original bid by Alchemy Partners we would bite their hands off," she said.

"Now MG Rover is involved in a fire sale that is impossible. The Phoenix bid was always a lot more risky, but was popular at the time because it saved more jobs in the short term," she said.

Ms Kirkbride has said that experts who originally backed the Alchemy plan to save 2,000 jobs and preserve MG as a niche sports car manufacturer have been proved right.

"There was a lot of pressure at the time in favour of the Phoenix Four proposal because it saved more jobs. If the Alchemy bid had been accepted there would have been job losses and pain at the time, but we would now have car making at Longbridge," she added.

Ms Kirkbride described reports that the rights to the MG TF had accidentally been sold to Chinese carmaker SAIC as: "catastrophic if true."

"The last hope to salvage something from this is with the MG brand," she added.

The MP said that her criticism of the management of MG Rover had not gone down well and that about 18 months ago Peter Beale, vice-chairman of Phoenix Venture Holdings had warned her to "shut up."

The MP has also accused the Government of pressing for the Phoenix bid for political reasons ahead of the 2001 General Election.

l THE impact of the crash of MG Rover is putting a dent in the economy with a dramatic increase in the number of people out of work.

New unemployment figures show that 9,000 people in Worcestershire are looking for work compared with 6,500 at the beginning of the year.

Jobless numbers would normally be expected to fall in the summer, but the increase of nearly a third shows the effect of the Longbridge closure with a ripple effect adding to the number of people directly affected by the MG Rover collapse.

The MG Rover task force recently announced a £7.5 million package to help 1,000 companies in the supply chain and Nick Paul, chairman, has claimed everything possible is being done.

"There are hundreds of companies in the West Midlands, particularly in MG Rover's supply chain, facing testing times," he said.