What deal has the government given Nissan?

Car giant Nissan just came out of secret talks with government ministers. No one knows what was said, but now Nissan has announced it’s doing more business in the UK.

Greg Clark, the government minister responsible, said “no cheque book” was involved - but what exactly did he promise the car giant? Ordinary British people deserve to know what our government’s saying to big corporations behind closed doors. 

This is on the brink of being a big story. But to get Greg Clark to come clean, we need to push it up a gear. Sign the petition to make sure he bows to our collective pressure. 

Our governments have a history of doing one sided deals for big businesses. It’s been exposed before giving sweetheart tax deals worth millions to the likes of Google, Goldman Sachs, and Vodafone. If Nissan held the government to ransom by threatening to leave, then who knows what politicians happily gave away. 

After Brexit, the government has a free hand to dismantle all sorts of employment rights and corporate regulations. Did Greg Clark say he’d make it worth Nissan’s while to stick around in post-Brexit Britain? Something has convinced Nissan, and all of us deserve to know what. 

So far the government has kept quiet about any Brexit plans: it’s deeply unfair if car giant Nissan knows something all of us don’t. More manufacturing is good for jobs, but big corporations can’t bully our elected governments, and ministers can’t keep unfair deals a secret from us. 

What is Nissan getting that the rest of us aren’t? It’s not right if some corporations or industries are protected from the worst effects of Brexit, but not ordinary people. No one wants a shadowy, backroom Brexit.

Government and corporate transparency is a key value in the SumOfUs community, and together we pressure politicians to resist vested interests. When the Panama Papers scandal shook the world, 30,000 of us sprung into action to demand our leaders clamped down on tax havens and dodgy deals. We can do that again now. 

If there’s nothing for Greg Clark to be ashamed of, then he shouldn’t mind telling us. Sign the petition here to get him to be honest about what he promised Nissan.