Paul Hinchliffe, managing director of Brighouse-based engineering company Asquith Butler, said Britain's manufacturing tradition had been neglected.

He said: "The Government has always been so reliant on the finance industry to create money but that does not create wealth.

"We have caught a cold now and it has shown there is nothing there.

"But if you have a big manufacturing base you have got assets. The Government might start listening to the manufacturing industry now.

"Manufacturing has created the wealth of this country over the last 200 years.

"We have got fantastic military forces but we are at a stage where we cannot create our own military equipment.

"Any more cut-backs and we will just not be able to do it."

Mr Hinchliffe and the company's commercial manager, Peter Jowett, met Calder Valley MP Chris McCafferty at the House of Commons at a reception organised by the Manufacturing Technologies Association.

The event was aimed at raising the profile of engineering-based manufacturing in the UK.

Ian Pearson, the minister for business and economic secretary to the Treasury, also spoke.

Mr Hinchliffe said despite the industry remaining robust and employing millions of people it was grossly underestimated.

"People think we don't have much core manufacturing but there is more now than in the mid-1970s," he said.

"We are manufacturing more products now but just with less people."

Mr Hinchliffe said he wanted assurances that government-funded projects would use products manufactured here instead of those produced by foreign competitors.

"When it comes to companies funded by the Ministry of Defence, which is funded by the taxpayer, I don't know why they go to foreign machines," he said.

And he urged the Government to commit funding to research and development.

He said: "The skills gap is getting wider. This country needs more engineers but training is more expensive.

"The Government is not putting money into apprenticeships. We have tried over the years to get funding for them.

"It's pretty pathetic. We will not be able to do our jobs if it's not done.

"Everything you touch, at one point it's been touched by a machine tool, from cars to hi-fis."

He said other countries heavily invested in the industry.