A DEAL for Vauxhall may not be completed until the end of next month at the earliest.

Canadian car giant Magna is the preferred bidder to buy General Motors' European arm, which employs 2,000 people at its Ellesmere Port Vauxhall plant.

Magna needs to make 265m euros worth of cuts to GM Europe, and reports have suggested that hundreds of jobs could go at its UK plants in Ellesmere Port and Luton if the takeover goes ahead.

Union leaders and the Government are battling to ensure that UK jobs are protected.

Sources close to the negotiations said that, despite reports that a deal was imminent, a memorandum of understanding between GM and Magna was unlikely to be signed for several weeks.

Union leaders, including Merseyside-born Unite chief Tony Woodley, were in negotiations with ministers in London yesterday as they battle to save Ellesmere Port jobs.

The Cheshire plant has already started building the new generation Astra, which the company sees as crucial to its future.

Ellesmere Port is today hosting the model's official media launch.

At an event in Cheshire last night, Vauxhall's product manager for compact cars, Adam Collins, said he believed the new Astra could become the UK's best-selling car in its sector.