Vauxhall in Luton: Town reacts to factory closure announcement

A forklift worker at the plant, who has been with the company for 10 years, said he was “pretty depressed” by the news.

He said finding out he was losing his job via a WhatsApp message from a friend – having not been at work when the announcement was made – was “pretty rubbish”.

“There’s a lot of people there, a lot of people coming up to retirement and youngsters – it’s going to hit the town hard,” said the man, who spoke to the BBC anonymously.

“As there’s a lot of people that depend on Vauxhall to supply parts, there’s going to be a big knock-on effect.

“It’s going to hit the town hard. It will be huge.”

He described how a lot of companies supplied parts to Vauxhall, adding: “We have over 500 lorries a day coming to Vauxhall, from all over the place.”

He said, being in his late 50s, he believed it would be harder for him to get another job, but he had his “fingers crossed”.

“Luckily I’ve done other training so I can look for jobs elsewhere.”