Lord Mandelson will meet executives of Magna in Berlin today to extract specific job commitments from Vauxhall’s new Canadian owner.

The lunchtime meeting marks the first time that the Business Secretary has met Magna bosses since the Canadian car-part supplier and Sberbank, its Russian funding partner, were picked to acquire Vauxhall last month.

The peer is trying to force Magna to reveal how many of the 5,000 British jobs at Vauxhall’s factories in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, and in Luton will be guaranteed and for how long.

Given that officials in Lord Mandelson’s department met Magna last week and that the peer has also met the Canadian executives on a number of occasions, it is understood that the talks today will be of an advanced nature. In return for a commitment on jobs, the Canadians want British taxpayer funds. This sum could reach up to £350 million.

Lord Mandelson met senior representatives from the Unite union and MPs local to the Luton plant yesterday. Last night he was scheduled to fly to Berlin to meet senior Chancellery officials and KarlTheodor zu Guttenberg, the German Economics Minister, who spearheaded last month’s talks over Magna’s acquisition of General Motors Europe, Vauxhall’s owner.

Lord Mandelson said: “The Government is continuing to do all it can to secure the future of production at the Luton and Ellesmere Port plants. The UK Government is at the heart of the discussions on securing a commercial solution for GM Europe. I continue to fight for the best interests of all Vauxhall’s workforce in the UK.”

At the end of last month, Magna took control of the European unit of General Motors hours before the carmaker’s US parent prepared to become the biggest industrial failure in American corporate history.

Magna is paying ¤700 million (£610 million) for a 55 per cent slice of Opel, Vauxhall’s stablemate, and has handed over ¤300 million of emergency funding to keep GM Europe afloat. Of the 55 per cent stake, Sberbank controls 35 per cent. The American parent retains a 35 per cent interest and Opel workers keep another 10 per cent shareholding. The bid to buy GM Europe is conditional on due diligence of both Opel and Vauxhall.

Officials from Magna were in Luton and Ellesmere Port yesterday to start combing through the accounts of Vauxhall. It is thought that the due diligence process could take a few months to complete.

Separately, Lord Mandelson will issue a warning today against a bunker mentality in Britain in the midst of the economic recession and the rise of euroscepticism. In a speech in Berlin, he will tell business leaders that the answer to their present troubles is not a retreat into nationalism but closer ties with the rest of the European Union.

Britain’s relationship with the EU has always been “complicated”, he will say. “We have too often acted as if we have nothing to learn from the rest of Europe, or to gain from closer European co-operation. After the crunch, that attitude is simply no longer credible.”

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