Union leaders said yesterday they had won assurances that the future of the Vauxhall car factory at Ellesmere Port is "secure".

The Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) said car production would continue there and the claims it could close were "speculation". Last week, reports from Germany, home of the European arm of Vauxhall's parent firm, General Motors, suggested the Cheshire plant could be in jeopardy.

Klaus Franz, chairman of the General Motors European works council, was quoted in FT Deutschland newspaper as saying that a recent decision to name Ellesmere Port as a manufacturing site for new Vectra models was "a purely political move" which "would be addressed in the future".

But Duncan Simpson, AEEU national officer for the motor industry, said: "On learning of the article we contacted senior UK management who confirmed that there is surplus capacity in Europe."

The company is to discuss the matter with the international unions at a European Forum meeting tomorrow, he added.