There were angry words as General Motors subsidiary Vauxhall ended car production at its Luton facility after nearly 100 years.

Around 1,900 staff have been axed by Vauxhall in Bedfordshire and the last of them left yesterday as the final car, a silver V6 Vectra model, came off the assembly line.

"I feel very let down. I have been here for 15 years and I'm sad and angry," said production operator John Kingham, 36 who plans to work as a truck driver. He blamed management for closing the facilty but also railed at the "union hierarchy" for failing to do more.

In fact, 30,000 GM workers across Europe staged a brief walkout against the plan but the majority wanted redundancy rather than try and halt the closure by further industrial action.

Some 500 of the car workers at Luton have gone to a nearby facility that produces vans and sports utility vehicles; others have moved to Vauxhall's plant at Ellesmere Port on Merseyside. Luton's closure follows Ford's exit last month from car production at Dagenham in Essex.