The factory that won an Anglo-German struggle for the right to make the Astra just five years ago is once again confronting a highly uncertain future
Vince Cable pushed at the revolving door of General Motors’ New York offices and stepped into the bustle of a February afternoon in Manhattan. As he scanned the street for his awaiting taxi, the then business secretary breathed a huge sigh of relief.
It was 2012, and Cable had just persuaded Dan Akerson, then chief executive of car giant General Motors, to hand production of the seventh-generation Astra to Britain.