PRIME Minister Gordon Brown said the decision by General Motors not to sell off Vauxhall was “good news”.

Mr Brown had met with the Ellesmere Port car plant’s general manager, Tom Schmidt, on a visit to Capenhurst, in south Wirral.

He said General Motors’ decision to pull out of the sale of its European division was “good news and shows GM’s confidence in the future of Vauxhall”.

General Motors announced that it expects to axe around 10,000 jobs across Europe as part of its restructuring of Vauxhall and Opel after revealing it had scrapped plans to sell the brands to Canadian car parts firm Magna.

Union leaders have responded to this latest development by saying redundancies were inevitable but have pledged to work towards minimising the impact on Vauxhall’s UK workforce at Ellesmere Port, which has around and Luton, in Bedfordshire.

Mr Brown said: “I think Ellesmere Port is one of the great assets of GM in Europe.”

He said he could not go into detail, but told business leaders from the region: “I’m sure from what I’ve known of GM’s plans for many months that they see Ellesmere Port as an important part of the company.”

Pressed on whether the Government would help out financially to protect UK jobs, he said: “I think GM know that in the past we have helped them get new models off the ground.”

The Ellesmere Port plant is producing the new Astra model and has high hopes of being able to manufacture GM’s electric car the Ampera, and Mr Brown clearly also shares those ambitions, when he added: “I’m keen to see low carbon cars from this region.”

Ellesmere Port and Neston Labour MP Andrew Miller has also said he is now lobbying GM to reinstate its original production plans, which could mean a third shift for the site.

During the visit to EA Technologies in Capenhurst, Mr Brown met with business leaders from the North-West and talked about the importance of increasing apprenticeships, internships and getting more young people into higher education.

He said: “We have often neglected skills when the economy is low, and then paid the price when the economy gets better.”