Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt visit Sunderland to congratulate Nissan workers

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have congratulated workers at Sunderland's Nissan plant as they visited for the official announcement of new investment.

Nissan confirmed this morning, Friday, November 24, it is providing up to £3billion in investment – £2billion of which has been confirmed today – in Sunderland and will require three gigafactories to be able to support future production.

It means that all three cars currently produced at the facility – the Leaf, Juke and Qashqai – will continue to be made in the UK in the future and will all become electric before the end of the decade.

Mr Sunak and Mr Hunt attached a Nissan badge to the front of a blue Juke model in the plant’s light tunnel, where new cars are closely checked before they are sent out for distribution.

They were joined on the tour by Nissan’s global boss Makoto Uchida and plant chief Adam Pennick.

During the visit, Mr Sunak told employees: “You can be very proud.”

The production line was briefly stopped for Mr Sunak to be interviewed by the media on the factory floor.

The Prime Minister said: “This is a great day and I’m delighted to be here in Sunderland at the Nissan plant to celebrate the fact that Nissan and its partners are tripling their investment in the UK to £3billion.

“This is our largest car plant, its future is safeguarded, protecting thousands of jobs and also transitioning to new electric vehicles. So it’s a huge vote of confidence in the UK and in our automotive industry.

“And it’s great in advance of the Global Investment Summit that we are hosting on Monday, where we will be hosting over 200 business and investment leaders from around the world, all of whom are going to be talking about committing to the UK because it’s a fantastic place to do business.

“Companies like Nissan are demonstrating that today, protecting and creating jobs across the supply chain. So it’s great news.”