Vauxhall’s grip on the UK car market was slipping long before Peugeot snapped up the British marque from its US parent, General Motors, in a $2.2bn deal last month.

The most recent set of accounts for GM’s UK arm show Vauxhall’s market share across the country slipped by 7pc from 10.7pc to 9.95pc during the 18-month period to the end of June 2016.

However, the Luton-built Vivaro van helped the carmaker to boost its share of the light commercial vehicle sector from 9.7pc to 11.2pc.

The accounts also showed heavy investment was made in production equipment at the Ellesmere Port plant where the Astra car is built.

During the period, revenues were £6.3bn, with a pre-tax profit of £12.4m, highlighting the wafer-thin margins in the sector, part of the reason GM offloaded its European business.

A change of accounting period is why the latest figures cover 18 months period.