The government defended its negotiations with Astrazeneca after the pharmaceutical giant abandoned a planned investment of 450 million pounds Sterling last week, accusing a government funding deficit.
The Minister of Sciences, Sir Chris Bryant, told Parliament that the government had made an “important offer” of support for the company, but what to do more “simply not added to the taxpayer”.
Astrazeneca’s decision was “deeply disappointing,” said Sir Chris.
The Minister of Ghost Sciences, Alan Mak, said that the government had destroyed the agreement, costing jobs in the United Kingdom.
“Securing this agreement was a great test of economic credibility of work, and they failed,” said Mak.
The pharmaceutical giant announced its decision to cancel its investments scheduled only two days after Chancellor Rachel Reeves established the plowing plan to go “faster and faster” to stimulate economic growth. She appointed Astrazeneca in her speech as an example of one of the “big companies” that investigated in the United Kingdom.
The project would have seen an expansion of its vaccine manufacturing plant in Speke, Merseyside.
But Astrazeneca said that after “prolonged” discussions with the government, this would not continue with investment, although the production and existing jobs are maintained.
The firm said that a number of factors had led to the decision, including “the calendar and the reduction of the final supply compared to the proposal of the previous government”.
The Minister of Sciences said that the company had decided to reduce the amount it was investing in research and development.
Sir Chris declared in the Parliament: “Astrazeneca would bring together 150 million pounds sterling in R&D. They then decided to reduce this to something like 90 million pounds sterling in R&D. It was their decision according to their own decisions D ‘investment.”
The government had subsequently made Astrazeneca an offer which was “remarkably close to the 90 million pounds sterling that the previous chancellor had offered … but that, in any case, did not have it on the line” , he said.
The plans to extend the Astrazeneca site to Speke had been exhibited by the previous Conservative Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, in the budget of last March.
But reports later emerged that discussions on the plans between the new Labor government and society had undergone delays.
Sir Chris insisted that Astrazeneca had not lost confidence in the United Kingdom and has always invested more than 2.5 billion pounds sterling in the British economy each year.
“Astrazeneca does not leave. People do not lose their jobs on this subject…. There are still 10,000 people employed by Astrazeneca in the United Kingdom,” he said.
