More than €3.3bn (£2.7bn) was wiped off the value of Stellantis after its boss quit abruptly amid struggles to make the shift to electric vehicles. Shares in Stellantis dropped by more than 8pc in both Paris and Milan,

The closure of the Vauxhall plant in Luton will cost the town a total of about 3,700 jobs and have a £310m impact on the local area's economy, a council leader told BBC Politics East. On Tuesday, Stellantis, the owner of Vauxhall, announced plans to close its Bedfordshire van-making factory, putting about 1,100 jobs at the plant at risk.

Vauxhall started making cars in 1903 in South London but moved to a new factory in Kimpton Road Luton in 1905. Car manufacturing in at the Bedfordshire plant ended in 2002 - the last car to roll of the production line was a Vectra - after nearly 100 years, leading to 1,900 job losses.