Although Aldred couldn’t confirm whether another car would be made at the plant – which is currently building Astras until 2014 – he did say that he’d be doing all he can to ensure his bid to build another model there is successful.

“Everything goes through its deliberations, but at this point in time Astra still has a few years to run and as with any product we have to go through a bidding process,” he explained.

“And that’s what we will do. In terms of UK manufacturing we built more than we expected to last year and both our plants (Luton is the second) are performing well.

“We’ll fight for the future of Ellesmere Port. Building in the UK is a core part of the Vauxhall brand so we always like to see it retained in the UK.”