Land Rover’s Solihull factory is facing a renewed threat of closure after a joint management-union rescue plan was rejected by Ford, its owner.

Mark Fields, head of Ford’s luxury brands, said he had given the factory’s negotiating team one week to come up with an improved strategy to save the plant and its 8,000 employees.

Matthew Taylor, Land Rover managing director, said that the plant would not be shut immediately.

He said: ‘The threats are more that you are unlikely to receive the investment going forward in you don’t have a plan, which means eventual closure, a slow and lingering death.’