Airbus: We will quit UK if there is a no-deal Brexit
AIRBUS has warned it could quit the UK and take jobs abroad if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.
The aircraft giant is making plans to go in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
That raises fears for its 15,000 staff at its 25-plus centres as well 117,000 workers engaged by its suppliers.
And last night BMW also indicated that the lack of “clarity” coming out of the Brexit talks had forced it to consider “contingency plans”. Airbus’s Katherine Bennett said: “We don’t deal in idle threats. We believe a no-deal Brexit would be catastrophic.”
The firm, whose shareholders include the French and German governments with 11% stakes, was the first big manufacturer to say it may divert investment.
Josh Hardie, from business group the CBI, said: “Companies are being forced to prepare for the reality of a cliff-edge. We could see more statements like this.” Indeed BMW, which makes the iconic Mini in Oxford and Rolls-Royce in the UK and employs 8,000 people, yesterday set a deadline for the Government to sort out the issue.
BMW UK boss Ian Robertson said: “If we don’t get clarity in the next couple of months, we have to start making those contingency plans.”
He added this would “effectively make the UK industry less competitive”. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady urged the Government to “stop playing with people’s lives”. Business Department officials were yesterday in talks with Airbus chiefs. Creditors have agreed struggling House of Fraser can close 31 stores, jeopardising 6,000 jobs but paving the way for Chinese firm C Banner to invest £70million.