Lord Mandelson, business secretary, said on Thursday night that he was confident jobs were safe at Vauxhall’s plants in the UK following the sale of General Motors’ European business to Magna International, a Canadian car-parts supplier, and Russia’s Sberbank.
GM’s decision to sell Opel to the Canadian and Russian partnership – a move welcomed by Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel – ended months of uncertainty over the carmaker’s fate.
