Sports Minister to hear Silverstone plea

However, his political rival, Conservative Party leadership contender Kenneth Clarke, said it was unlikely that any government would give such a large cash hand-out to an individual case. Clarke told Silverstone TV that governments: "Tended to be a bit mean about things like that."

Caborn, who like Clarke was attending the British Grand Prix at the weekend, acknowledged the importance of the British motorsport industry to the economy.

"We have seven of the Formula One teams based here in Britain," he told British National paper The Times. "But there are 40,000 people employed in this motor racing sector. What is important is that we keep the leading-edge technologies and, in Formula One, it is the spin-off into the volume car makers which is important."

Although Stewart will meet with Caborn, the Minister says he will look at the wider picture and not just the plans to update the British GP venue into a state-of-the-art venue.

"Sir Jackie is going to come in to see me with other people from the industry. The case has to be made in the round but we have to understand the worth of this industry to the British economy.

"But I am not going to be events-driven," he added. "I want to have a strategy about what adds value to the British economy and the sport itself. Far too long we have been making decisions in a strategic vacuum and those days are over. The strategy must continue of inward investment, manufacturing, exports and a spectacle like the British Grand Prix."

Caborn, meanwhile, refused to answer any motorsport 'quiz questions' over the weekend after his recent embarrassment on radio where he failed to name the captain of the British Lions rugby team. "I don't do that anymore," he said.