Lord Mandelson was last night under mounting pressure to deliver a short-term bail-out of the British car sector, after President George W Bush announced a $17.4bn (£11.7bn) loan to General Motors and Chrysler to help them survive the next three months.

Expectations are growing the business secretary will offer a cash lifeline - possibly as soon as this weekend - to Jaguar Land Rover worth hundreds of millions of pounds, a move he could present as an effort to preserve the company's high-tech research base in the UK.