Appearing before the Commons Transport Select Committee, Philip Hammond has spoken out following much criticism of his department’s decision to give a contract to build 1,200 trains and carriages to German manufacturer Siemens.

He rebutted Colin Walton, the UK chairman of Bombardier criticisms of the tender process, stating: “There was no objection from any of the bidders until the outcome was announced. At no point did any of the bidders object to the terms of invitation to tender, the bundled nature of the contract or the evaluation criteria.”

He suggested that Bombardier should re-evaluate its own bidding proposals. “It is not just about the financing, it is about the whole life cost to the taxpayer,” said Mr Hammond, adding: “It is not as if Bombardier needs propping up. It has won 11 of 14 train procurement contracts and supplied half of the trains since privatisation. It has had an extraordinary run of success and I hope it will continue to be successful.”

Leader of the opposition, Ed Milliband said: "I am going to do everything I can to support Bombardier and to support the people of Derby and try and make the government think again. Bombardier is not just important for Derby, it is important for the whole country because we want train manufacturing to stay in Derby and to stay in Britain,"