Rachel Reeves has "fumbled" a £450million deal with AstraZeneca after the firm announced it would no longer build a vaccine plant, the Tories have said.

The vaccine company blamed Labour's lack of support for pulling the deal.

Andrew Griffith, Shadow Business Secretary, said: "There's no vaccine for incompetence. In the same week they talked about growth, Labour seem to have fumbled a deal with AstraZeneca, one of the UK's largest companies and central to the critical Life Sciences sector.

"This is yet another sign that their tax rises and changes to employment law have made the UK an unattractive place to invest.

"When will Labour learn that only businesses can creates growth and jobs in the economy?"

The Labour government last summer tried to reduce the amount of state support provided to AstraZeneca's Liverpool project from about £90million to £40million.

Despite this, a statement released by the firm on Friday said: "Following protracted discussions with the government, we are no longer pursuing our planned investment at Speke.

"Several factors have influenced this decision including the timing and reduction of the final offer compared to the previous government's proposal."

Former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt's offer had included up to £70million in grants to develop an existing AstraZeneca vaccine facility at Speke, as well as £20million in research and development support from the UK Health Security Agency.

AstraZeneca at the time said that their development plans demonstrated their "ongoing confidence in UK life sciences".

Former health secretary Matt Hancock had warned that the UK needed to improve its own vaccine manufacturing capability as a "critical" part of preparing for a future pandemic.

Mr Hancock told the Covid Inquiry earlier in January that Britain's vaccine manufacturing capacity was "weak", adding: "having that manufacture and fill and finish onshore, physically within the UK, is critical in the way that it simply isn't in normal times".

Ms Reeves gave a major speech this week where she announced measures to spur on long-term growth.

But a string of companies including Sainsbury's and Lloyds Banking Group, have announced mass redundancies following the Chancellor's tax-raising October budget.

The job losses at Sainsbury's came two months after the supermarket said Ms Reeves's recent Budget would cost it £140million because of higher wages and higher employers' national insurance payments.