Rachel Reeves visitng a factor earlier this week (Image: Getty)
AstraZeneca has axed plans to build a £450million vaccine manufacturing plant because of a lack of Government support in the latest blow to Rachel Reeves.
The Labour government last summer tried to reduce the amount of state support provided to the Liverpool project from about £90million to £40million, reports have suggested.
Officials are said to have proposed a revised offer of financial support for the site this month that was significantly higher than the £40million offered last year.
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Despite this, a statement released by AstraZeneca on Friday said: “Following protracted discussions with the government, we are no longer pursuing our planned investment at Speke.
“Several factors have influenced this decision including the timing and reduction of the final offer compared to the previous government’s proposal.”
Former Conservative chancellor ’s offer had included up to £70million in grants to develop an existing AstraZeneca vaccine facility at Speke, as well as £20million in research and development support from the UK Health Security Agency.
AstraZeneca at the time said that their development plans demonstrated their “ongoing confidence in UK life sciences”.
The existing Speke site will continue to produce and supply the flu vaccine, the company said.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock had warned that the UK needed to improve its own vaccine manufacturing capability as a “critical” part of preparing for a future pandemic.
Mr Hancock told the Inquiry earlier in January that Britain’s vaccine manufacturing capacity was “weak”, adding: “having that manufacture and fill and finish onshore, physically within the UK, is critical in the way that it simply isn’t in normal times”.
Ms Reeves gave a major speech this week where she announced measures to spur on long-term growth.
But a string of companies including Sainsbury’s and Lloyds Banking Group, have announced mass redundancies following the Chancellor’s tax-raising October budget.
The job losses at Sainsbury’s came two months after the supermarket said Ms Reeves’s recent Budget would cost it £140million because of higher wages and higher employers’ national insurance payments.