AstraZeneca scraps plan to expand vaccine plant in the UK in blow to government

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has cancelled a planned 450 million-pound investment in a vaccine manufacturing plant in northwest England. It blamed the new Labour government for diluting the support that had been offered by the previous Conservative administration. Friday's decision represents a blow to Treasury chief Rachel Reeves at the end of a week when she trumpeted the government’s plans to bolster British economic growth and make the country more attractive to international investors. The government said a “change in the make-up of the investment” proposed by AstraZeneca, had led to a change in the grant it was willing to offer. Details of what had changed were not immediately available.