Andrew Miller, Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, has backed Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port manufacturing plant, citing it as a perfect example of why the government and public should be buying British.
Mr Miller said that as well as providing vital employment in his constituency, the Government should also realise that the plant had a ‘very real future’, which would include building the new-generation Astra next year. Currently, all five-door Astras are built at Ellesmere Port, around 60 per cent of which go to export.
"We should support products that are made at home," said Mr Miller, "We could sell considerably more to other such people, including to Ministers for the government fleet."
Ellesmere Port is already home to the new low-CO2 Astra ecoFLEX. Business minister Peter Mandelson is known to keen on bringing European production of the electric GM Volt to Ellesmere Port, and may extract such a commitment from GM in return for government assistance to Vauxhall.