The plant, which is just outside of Graham’s constituency, employs 2,100 people directly. Thousands more local jobs are also dependent on the operation of the plant. The announcement that the plant will build a new generation of Vauxhall Astra cars means these jobs have been secured alongside at least an extra 700 jobs created.
Production of the new Astra will begin in 2015 and the plant will have the capacity to build 220,000 cars a year.
The announcement came on top of encouraging figures earlier in the week showing that unemployment is falling, both nationally and in Weaver Vale.
On the day of the announcement, Graham commented: “This is absolutely fantastic news. It is great for Ellesmere Port, Cheshire and the whole country. Unquestionably, this is great testament to the workers and their skill, hard work and commitment which has proved vital to ensuring this great result today. There has been a real team effort with the Government, the company, unions and workers to ensure production is kept in Cheshire.
“This is a real sign that the Government’s efforts to rebalance the economy away from the City of London and towards manufacturing in the North is working.
“But there is no room for complacency. There is still a long way to go to get the economy growing and sort out the mess left by the last Labour Government. Since the Coalition took office two years ago, we have cut the last government’s deficit by more than a quarter. Yesterday, we had encouraging news on unemployment, too. So now more than ever this is the time to stand firm during these difficult economic times.”