BRITAIN’S largest train assembly factory could stop production soon, putting thousands of jobs at risk, Alstom managing director Nick Crossfield warned today.

Mr Crossfield said the potential job losses at the Derby site would have a “considerable” and permanent impact on the national supply chain.

A lack of orders has meant that “between now and May, June, we will go down to very little or no activity in what is one of the group’s largest facilities worldwide,” he told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.