WIVES and children of MG Rover workers were offered tea and sympathy by the Government yesterday when they took their campaign to save thousands of jobs to Downing Street.

Almost 100 women and their children travelled to Westminster to warn of the "horrendous" effect on jobs if the company's factory at Longbridge closed.

Carrying home-made banners and posters supporting the workers, they handed a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to "pull up his socks" and redouble attempts to secure a partnership deal with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation.

Later, they spent an hour with Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt, who took them into her London office for tea and biscuits after saying: "We are doing everything we can to save jobs. The anxiety these women are going through is dreadful."

Meanwhile, the Rover Task Force made its first grant to a company supplying the ailing car giant - a wage replacement payment of £2,500 was made to safeguard the jobs of ten people, or one third of the staff, at an unnamed Coventry firm.

The workers were in danger of being laid off after MG Rover went into administration last week.

The wives and children arrived in London in three coaches after leaving from Longbridge, where car production has been suspended for the past week after administrators were called in.

One of the organisers, Gemma Cartwright, said the closure would have horrendous effects on British industry.

She said: "We have come here because we need the support from the Government. We want them to pull their socks up and get behind the Shanghai deal.

"Rover cannot die because the impact would not just be felt in Birmingham, it would hit people across the country."

Mrs Cartwright, accompanied by her two young children, led a group of three women into Downing Street as they handed in the letter.

Prime Minister Tony Blair was not at home. He had earlier helped launch Labour's General Election manifesto in another part of the capital.

MG Rover also announced it will not honour its warranty obligations for new car owners because of "insufficient funds".

About 150,000 Rover owners who have bought cars in the past two years will have to pay for any problems with their vehicles or look for another warranty provider.

North-East based Reg Vardy, which has Rover dealerships in Darlington, Gateshead and Stockton-on-Tees, has said it will honour the warranties on any MG Rover cars bought from its showrooms.