As many as1,000 jobs are at risk at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port site after the firm's chief executive said he could cease all production at the plant if Brexit makes it unprofitable.
Carlos Tavares, chief executive of PSA, has said his firm could use alternative plants on mainland Europe to build future vehicles such as the Astra and Opel if the UK Government does not get a deal with the EU.
He said the car giant needed "visibility" on customs for parts coming and going from Europe and the rest of the world - something a no-deal Brexit would risk due to its possibility of checks and tarrifs.
It comes after Michael Gove said at the weekend a no-deal Brexit was now the government’s “assumed” position and, as he wrote in the Sunday Times this week, a “very real prospect”.
It’s not the only no-deal Brexit warning from the firm in recent times regarding the North West site.
In June, Vauxhall said the result of Brexit negotiations would be the deciding factor in whether it makes its next Astra model at the Ellesmere Port plant.
Mr Tavares told the Financial Times on Sunday: “I would prefer to put it [production of the Astra] in Ellesmere Port but if the conditions are bad and I cannot make it profitable, then I have to protect the rest of the company and I will not do it.
“We need visibility on customs for parts coming from continental Europe or from the rest of the world, and we need visibility on the customs for cars coming out of the UK to continental Europe. Those are the only things we need – everything else we’ll take care of.”
The Ellesmere Port site employs more than 1,000 people from its surrounding areas, including Wirral, Liverpool and Cheshire, from where it makes its best-selling Astra model.
If the site closed, the plant in Luton would be Vauxhall's only remaining UK plant.
And last week, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders described a no-deal Brexit as "simply not an option" - and that it would cause an "existential threat" to the industry.
