UK business secretary Vince Cable has no plans to meet General Motors this week at the Geneva show as speculation continues to surround the Vauxhall Ellesmere Port operations in North-West England.
The secretary of state [minister] met GM CEO Dan Akerson in New York last week as part of a drive to stress to the automaker the inherent strength of the UK auto sector but his department stressed any further planned discussions were not on the cards during his visit to the Swiss city.
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“Vince Cable will be there [Geneva] tomorrow, he is leaving later today,” a spokeswoman for the secretary’s department in London told just-auto. “No planned meetings, no, he met Dan Akerson last week. We are, in terms of making the case for the UK, we have done that and of course we will continue to do that.
“It does not just stop with one meeting. Our focus on General Motors absolutely will continue and will be maintained in the days and weeks [ahead].
Rumours surrounding the Astra-producing factory in northwest England provoked a furious response from UK unions last week with representatives saying they would be making a ‘strident’ case to GM to retain the plant employing around 2,100 people.
Cable met Akerson in New York to press the UK’s automotive position, but the Unite union maintains there is “not one iota of business logic” in closing Ellesmere Port.
