Rolls-royce boss urges politicians to pull out stops to avoid no-deal

THE boss of jet engine maker Rollsroyce has called for politicians on all sides of the Brexit debate to thrash out a deal for the good of UK business.

Warren East, who leads the FTSE 100 business, said: “Any deal is better than no deal. We are running out of time and I would, as a business leader, like to see politicians on both sides of the fence get on and negotiate a practical deal that works for business.”

Mr East admitted his view was “fairly unashamedly business-centric” but said he wanted the “best possible deal” and that not everyone would be happy with all elements of it.

“People in business spend their lives negotiating agreements with other businesses and we understand that you can’t have ideal agreements,” he said. “If two parties come together to make an agreement and if two parties have slightly different objectives, then you have to end up making some compromises, so I am looking for a good deal but a practical deal.”

Rolls employs more than 20,000 staff in the UK and supports a further 100,000 jobs in its supply chain. Mr East said he was stockpiling parts in case of a no-deal scenario which would mean imported components were held up at the border.

“This is only a draft agreement and there are a lot of steps to go and we cannot guarantee anything out of this,” Mr East said. “But I do have to guarantee we can continue doing our business after March 29 next year and therefore we will continue with our contingency plans which includes buffer stocks.”

Germany’s BMW group has also called for politicians to put aside their differences. The company builds Minis at its giant Oxford plant and also owns Rolls-royce Motor Cars – which is separate from the aircraft engine business.

BMW, which also has engine and component factories in the UK, said the draft agreement was a “positive step in the right direction to avoid a nodeal Brexit, which would have a disruptive and detrimental effect”.

However, political turmoil meant it had to plan for Britain blowing out of the EU without an agreement. “We have emphasised throughout this process, uncertainty is not good for business. As a responsible employer, we must therefore continue to prepare for the worst-case scenario, which is what a no-deal Brexit would represent.”

There were also concerns about the impact of no-deal on the Vauxhall automotive business which operates the Astra car plant in Ellesmere Port and a van plant in Luton. Last week its French owner Groupe PSA said Vauxhall and sister business Opel had returned to profit. However, there were reports PSA is considering closing one of the sites, which between them employ about 3,000 people.

Vauxhall said: “We are working in an agile mode, as usual, and we have several solutions to address different scenarios.”

Unions warned PSA they would fight to protect jobs at Vauxhall, saying workers had made sacrifices to get the Astra plant back into the black. A Unite spokesman added: “PSA should be under no illusion [that] it would be a betrayal of a loyal workforce’s hard work if PSA used the cover of Brexit to close Vauxhall plants.”