Driven out by Brexit? Honda set to leave UK
3,500 jobs on line as Japanese giant follows route of other car firms
‘We will not be steamrolled’
THE car crash that Brexit is developing into appears to show no signs of braking – as Japanese car-maker Honda will become the latest major motoring firm to pull its operations out of the UK, putting 3,500 jobs at risk.
The company will today deal Theresa May’s government a major blow by officially announcing it is to close its Swindon factory in 2022.
It is the latest damaging hit for Britain’s car manufacturing industry, with several international firms threatening to close plants amid fears over Brexit.
In December, Nissan announced it would no longer build its X-Trail car at its plant in Sunderland, and Jaguar Land Rover recently said it would cut 4,500 UK jobs.
Meanwhile, Ford bosses have warned a no-deal Brexit would be ‘catastrophic’ and would cost it 1,000 jobs – mainly at its Bridgend plant in Wales.
Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has also warned it could shift future wing-building out of Britain if there is a no-deal Brexit.
Bosses at Honda, Britain’s fifth largest car producer, recently declared that the UK crashing out without a deal would cost the firm ‘tens of millions of pounds’.
It warned its costs could rise by about 10% if the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal and World Trade Organisation tariffs are applied instead.
The company keeps only an hour’s worth of parts and relies on deliveries from about 350 trucks every day to provide the parts required to make the cars on a ‘just-in-time’ basis.
However, Tory MP Justin Tomlinson, for Swindon, insisted the decision ‘is based on global trends and not Brexit at all’. Trade union Unite, however, blamed the job losses on prime minister Mrs May’s ‘rigid approach’ to negotiations with the EU, claiming the threat of no deal had led to ‘chaotic Brexit uncertainty’.
The plant is among the biggest employers in the region, which voted in favour of leaving the EU, and is currently the firm’s only factory inside the bloc.
However just six months ago the firm had also insisted it was ‘right behind’ the Swindon plant and would not move it out of the UK.
Des Quinn, Unite national officer for the automotive sector, said: ‘If these reports are confirmed, this would be a shattering body blow at the heart of UK manufacturing.
‘The car industry in the UK over the last two decades has been the jewel in the crown for the manufacturing sector – and now it has been brought low by the chaotic Brexit uncertainty created by the rigid approach adopted by prime minister Theresa May.’
The expected job cuts come as Tánaiste Simon Coveney yesterday warned that Ireland would not be ‘steamrolled’ into giving ground on the border backstop.
He also rejected any suggestion Ireland was to blame for the Brexit deadlock, insisting respon-
sibility lay in London. His comments came as he met with UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt on the fringes of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels yesterday.
Afterwards, he again made clear that the backstop, as agreed in the Withdrawal Agreement, could not be changed.
‘There is a deal on the table. The British government signed up to it. Jeremy Hunt was part of that government. They haven’t been able to sell that to their own parliament,’ he told RTÉ.
‘And I accept that has created a lot of uncertainty, but it is certainly not Ireland’s fault.
‘The responsibility to resolve this problem in terms of the way forward needs to lie where the problem is, which is in London – not Dublin. We would be very foolish if we allowed the onus to solve that problem to switch away from Westminster to Dublin. We have been consistent.
‘We have been fair... We will not be steamrolled in this process.’
Under the terms of the withdrawal treaty, the backstop would come into effect if a wider trade deal between the UK and EU fails to materialise at the end of the Brexit transition period.
It would ensure a free-flowing Irish border by tying the UK to the Customs Union while, in addition, Northern Ireland alone would continue to adhere to EU Single Market regulations on goods, meaning the region would operate under a different legal framework to Britain.
The backstop is the primary reason MPs voted down the Withdrawal Deal at Westminster.