Pat McFadden, the Business Minister, will meet Magna executives and Tony Woodley, the union leader, today to try to force the new owner of Vauxhall to back down on plans to slash jobs.

Mr McFadden is leading the talks, which will be held at the Westminster offices of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. Lord Mandelson has spearheaded negotiations with bidders for Vauxhall in the past, but the Business Secretary is in Japan for meetings with senior ministers and business leaders.

Mr McFadden and Mr Woodley, the joint director-general of Unite, Britain’s biggest union, are deeply concerned about Magna’s plans to dismiss 10,500 workers at General Motors across Europe. Vauxhall believes that such a move would result in 30 per cent of its workforce being sacked.

Vauxhall, which has two factories in Cheshire and in Luton, is also anxious that Magna wants to cut production at its Ellesmere Port plant to 120,000 cars a year. That would represent a 60 per cent cut in capacity.

The carmaker is equally worried that its new owner has made no commitment to either plant for the manufacture of new models. Magna has made no pledge to keep open Vauxhall’s Luton plant, which makes the Vivaro commercial van, after 2013.

Mr McFadden hopes to extract more favourable commitments for Vauxhall workers by dangling the promise of about £400 million of loan guarantees from the Government.

Last month, Lord Mandelson sent a warning signal to Magna, writing to Brussels urging European competition authorities to examine the viability of its plans for Vauxhall. The Business Secretary sent the letter to Neelie Kroes, the European Competition Commissioner, as it emerged that Magna International was planning to dismiss more than 1,000 workers from Vauxhall — weeks after being selected as the successful bidder for Vauxhall and Opel, the European operations of GM.

Any state aid disbursed by Britain and funds already handed over by Berlin to secure German jobs are subject to European approval. Brussels can veto the money if competition regulators believe that the state aid serves as a political fix rather than being aimed at securing the long-term viability of a business.

Last month, GM announced that it had chosen Magna International, a Canadian vehicle parts group, to buy a 55 per cent stake in Opel and Vauxhall. Under its terms, the Canadians will share their 55 per cent stake with a financing partner, Sberbank, the Russian state-owned lender.

Magna has chosen Gaz, the carmaker owned by Oleg Deripaska, the aluminium oligarch, as its industrial partner. Germany will provide €3.5 billion (£3.2 billion) to Magna to protect German jobs and the Canadians will commit €500 million.

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