UNION chiefs today claimed plans unveiled for a giant £1bn UK wind farm proved there was no need to close a turbine factory on the Isle of Wight.

Bosses at the Rail Maritime and Transport union seized on reports that energy group Centrica was planning to buy 70 turbines from Germany as evidence that the arguments for the closure of the Vestas factory in Newport were totally fabricated.

Turbines for the Centrica project off Skegness, Lincolnshire, are likely to be bought from Siemens, fuelling the row over the closure of Vestas, where a group of workers were this morning completing their second week of protest.

Union leaders claimed the revelations would heap further embarrassment on the Government, which has promised thousands of new green jobs as a result of its drive for 10,000 wind turbines in Britain by 2020.

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Bob Crow, general secretary of Vestas workers’ union RMT, said: “Reports of the Centrica plans for a massive wind far off Skegness blow apart the totally fabricated case for the closure of Vestas on the Isle of Wight that there is no demand for turbines in the UK. That argument stands exposed as totally bogus.

“There is now no excuse for the Government sitting on the sidelines while the Vestas workforce fight on for the future of turbine manufacture in England.

“The Government should draw up an immediate rescue plan with the union.”

On Saturday campaigners turned out in force to support the 11 workers who have been staging the sit-in — now into its 14th day.

After protests and legal representations from RMT over the food blockade at the factory, and with one worker already taken to hospital suffering the effects of malnourishment, the police agreed to allow into the factory bags of groceries.

The food was received by the protesters to cheers from a rally of more than 200 people, who marched in appalling weather from St Thomas’s Square to the factory.

The peaceful rally was supported by workers, families, trade unions, green organisations and others.

A formal complaint was previously made to police over claims that workers occupying a wind turbine factory were having their human rights breached over access to food and drink.

The RMT took legal advice over the workers' human rights after claiming that they were being “starved” into submission because of a lack of adequate food supplies.

The union lodged a formal complaint to police over the actions of security guards after obtaining a legal opinion from leading human rights lawyer Louise Christian.