An ambitious plan to build a giant car battery factory in the West Midlands akin to Tesla's mega project in the Nevada desert would be thrown out by Labour.
In July, Conservative Mayor Andy Street said he wanted to build a so-called 'gigafactory' in the region to manufacture electric batteries and put the West Midlands at the forefront of developing the next generation of the technology.
But at Labour's annual conference in Brighton, Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said the party was instead backing development of three of the gigafactories in South Wales, Swindon and Stoke.
Although the latter is classed as being part of the wider West Midlands region, Stoke does not come under the remit of Mr Street's West Midlands Combined Authority.
Ms Long-Bailey also revealed that, should it be elected, a Labour government would spend £3 billion buying shares in car companies.
Mr Street's vision for the new factory would mirror that of the 1.9 million sq ft project being built by electric car manufacturer Tesla in Nevada which the mayor says is key to supporting thousands of jobs in the West Midlands.
It would be able to serve companies such as Jaguar Land Rover which announced in July that it would produce three new electric vehicles from its plant in Castle Bromwich.
Tesla's plant will eventually create batteries from scratch but, as this is an extremely complex process, it is more economical to do the whole thing in one place which requires a large factory.
Ms Long-Bailey said a Labour government would spend £1.8 billion to build three such factories, each employing 3,184 people, and had already decided the locations but it is unclear how they were chosen.
She told the conference: "We'll invest £1.8 billion in collaboration with private investors, to build three huge battery production facilities, called 'gigafactories' in Stoke, Swindon and South Wales, bringing thousands of jobs to these areas."
Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, said: "If the UK wants to continue to compete on the global electric car manufacturing stage then it needs a gigafactory - and fast.
"In picking the three locations they have, Labour have ignored the most obvious home for this state-of-the-art facility the West Midlands.
"Our region has an automotive cluster that features innovation centres, research centres, autonomous vehicle test beds, and major production plants.
"It is a real shame that Labour have not recognised this and that the Labour MPs who represent our region have not been able to make the case.
"I will continue to lobby the Government in power to make sure the UK's first gigafactory is built in its rightful home, here in the West Midlands."
Labour also said it would offer carmakers £3 billion to help them pay to update factories and produce electric cars.
Automotive firms would bid for a share of the money and they would be expected to match whatever they receive with investment of their own.
