It seems bizarre that ministers and UK’s largest company cannot complete investment in vital life sciences sector

The announcement in March last year that AstraZeneca would be investing £450m to expand its vaccine plant in Speke in Liverpool was presented in full flag-waving style by the company and the government of the day.

Sir Pascal Soriot, the AstraZeneca chief executive, reflected it had been 25 years since the merger of Astra of Sweden and Zeneca of the UK; the firm was now “truly global” but also “proud of our British roots.” Jeremy Hunt, then chancellor, said the £450m investment, plus £200m to expand its research facility in Cambridge, was “a vote of confidence in the attractiveness of the UK as a life sciences superpower”.