HONDA reaffirmed its commitment to British manufacturing when officials celebrated a UK production milestone at the show.

As workers at Swindon built their one-millionth model, Honda Motor Europe president Minoru Harada promised his company would maintain Britain as its European manufacturing base for the foreseeable future.

He said: 'Britain is our home and we intend to remain there. We are proud of what we have achieved at Swindon and have no intention of looking elsewhere for a European base. One in every 10 cars built in Britain is a Honda and we are now the fourth largest carmaker in the country.

'CR-V sport utility models from Swindon stand alongside similar cars from Japan in North America and the level of quality is identical in both.'

The milestone CR-V came only two years after Honda of the UK Manufacturing launched a major expansion of facilities at Swindon by opening a second car plant. The company, which also manufactures Civic three and five-door models, produced more than 177,000 vehicles there last year and plans to build 190,000 cars this year.