Production of a key Vauxhall Astra variant is being shifted to Germany from the UK, raising fresh fears for the firm's Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire.

Vauxhall owner PSA Group will make the Astra estate in Russelsheim from 2022 - ratcheting up pressure on Ellesmere Port and its 1,000 staff.

The estate model represents the vast bulk of the 59,000 cars which roll off the UK site's production line each year, and losing it is a severe blow.

It comes as car industry chiefs nervously await trade talks between Brussels and the UK. Lobbyists say that if tariffs are introduced then it will wreck their supply chain and trigger mass British factory closures.

Carlos Tavares, PSA chief executive, has previously said he wants to continue production at Ellesmere Port but will only do so if it is economic, saying a no-deal Brexit would risk this. Mr Tavares, famed for his cost-cutting, has likened Brexit and the UK car industry as a "train crash".

Professor David Bailey, an automotive industry expert at Birmingham University, said: “Mr Tavares has said that in the absence of a free trade deal things look bleak for UK production.

“Time could be running out for Ellesmere Port because as they have to invest in new facilities for a new model and it could soon be too late for that to keep work in the UK.”