Business secretary Peter Mandelson has moved to quell fears of jobs losses at UK Vauxhall plants after they were taken over by Canadian firm, Magna, Reuters has reported.
It has bought the European operations of Vauxhall’s owner General Motors.
The move prompted fears among the workforce that the factories at Luton and Ellesmere Port will close, according to the BBC.
But Mandelson said “uncertainty” over the future of carmaker Vauxhall had been removed by the deal for Canadian car parts company Magna to take control of Opel.
Opel is Vauxhall’s parent company.
“What I’m now going to do is to tie down in detailed terms the assurances that I have both from General Motors and from Magna on the future of the Vauxhall plans both at Ellesmere Port and Luton,” he told Sky News.
“I’ve had four to face-to-face meetings with the Magna CEO over the last couple of months – I take him at face value and I take him at his word, and now we will start talking money and we will start talking terms and detail,” he said.
“The uncertainty surrounding Vauxhall’s future has been removed by this announcement and I welcome that.”
He dismissed suggestions by the unions at car plants that the deal was the worst-case scenario for workers.
In a discussion on potential job losses, he replied: “If you are talking about plants, then I think the German plants are safe, I think the British plants are safe, I’m not absolutely sure about certain of the plants in other countries but I don’t want to speculate about that this evening.”
