Labour has accused the Government of not being serious about the UK automotive sector after failing to deliver promised funding for battery firm Britishvolt.
Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds was invited to the battery start-up's Northumberland site where it hopes to build a 3,000-job factory producing hundreds of thousands of British-designed lithium-ion batteries a year from 2024. But the firm has been hampered by a lack of investment it needs to get the £3.8bn facility operational, the latest blow being a Government refusal to allow £30m of a £100m grant promised to the firm first announced in January.
Mr Reynolds told Business Live: "The reason we've had the stories this week is because, quite frankly, after the mini-Budget, there's been substantial damage done to household finances, to interest rates but also to business investment and also to the investability of the UK. The political instability has a real world effect in terms of people's view of the country and the economic stability that they need to invest.
