Car plant closure by Honda ‘not related to Brexit’
Foreign Secretary insists ‘there is a way through’ impasse as time runs out
THE UK’S car manufacturing industry has suffered another huge blow after it emerged that Honda is to close its plant in Swindon with the loss of more than 3,000 jobs.
Local Tory MP Justin Tomlinson confirmed the news yesterday, insisting that the decision “is based on global trends and not Brexit as all European market production will consolidate in Japan in 2021”.
The Japanese company declined to comment on the announcement which comes less than six months after bosses at the car giant pledged its commitment to the UK.
The company employs about 3,500 people at its plant in Wiltshire, building around 160,000 Honda Civics a year, more than 90 per cent of which were exported to Europe and the US.
Swindon North MP Mr Tomlinson said he and fellow Tory MP Robert Buckland (Swindon South) had spoken to the Business Secretary and the car firm about the decision. He tweeted: “Honda will be consulting with all staff and there is not expected to be any job losses, or changes in production until 2021.”
Workers at the Honda plant in Swindon said they had not been informed about the plans. When asked his reaction to the news, one man leaving the site said: “Devastated. That’s all I can say.”
The news comes a fortnight after Nissan told workers its nextgeneration X-Trail would be made in Japan and not Sunderland as planned, despite the Government’s so-called sweetheart deal of up to £80m to protect the firm from higher post-Brexit tariffs. Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves,
who chairs the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee, described yesterday how the closure would be “devastating for Swindon, for jobs, for the supplychain, and for the UK’s car industry”.
The Labour MP added: “The threat of Brexit is already having a damaging impact on investment decisions in the UK. The PM now needs to rule out no deal immediately and keep us in the single market and customs union rather than risk further fatal damage to our car industry.”
Separately, the Government was warned today that leaving the EU with no deal would be “catastrophic” for manufacturing, killing off some sectors of industry overnight.
Dame Judith Hackitt, head of Make UK, formerly the EEF, will tell the organisation’s annual manufacturing dinner in London today that some companies have already moved production overseas. A survey of more than 400 firms for Make UK showed that half believe leaving with no deal would make the UK a less attractive location for manufacturing.
Just nine per cent of companies say they have won business previously sourced overseas since the referendum, highlighting the fact that leaving the EU does not appear to be improving their prospects, said the report.
Dame Judith will tell business leaders and politicians, including Chancellor Philip Hammond: “I am saddened by the way that some of our politicians have put selfish political ideology ahead of the national interest and people’s livelihoods and left us facing the catastrophic prospect of leaving the EU next month with no deal.
“This is not a prospect that our sector can counter. As our survey shows, companies have already taken action to move production overseas.”
THE EUROPEAN Union has been urged to demonstrate “trust and vision” in talks with the UK at the start of a week of intense efforts to find a Brexit breakthrough.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said yesterday that the process was at a “critical period” but insisted there was “a way through” which could secure the support of MPs at Westminster.
His comments came as Theresa May’s effective deputy prime minister David Lidington warned that a no-deal outcome would cause serious economic damage and could even put the future of the United Kingdom at risk.
Mr Hunt was speaking in Brussels at a foreign ministers’ meeting and is expected to have further talks with counterparts this week.
He said: “What we need is trust and vision on both sides because what is at stake here is Britain’s relationship with its European neighbours for the next 25 years.”
Meanwhile Mrs May will meet European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in the coming days and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay was due to hold talks with the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier yesterday.
The pair were expected to discuss the proposals of the Alternative Arrangements Working Group of Tories, who have been seeking a compromise solution to avoid the need for the controversial Irish backstop.
Ahead of his talks with Mr Barclay, Mr Barnier said “time is very short” as the clock ticks down to Brexit day on March 29.
Mr Lidington stressed the Government’s determination to secure a deal and issued a stark warning about what was at stake.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that a no-deal Brexit was “something that no member of the Cabinet wants to see, because... it would cause some serious damage to our economy and, I think, put strain on the union of the United Kingdom”.
In a sign of the increased Government activity, Mrs May spoke over the weekend to seven European leaders including Italy’s Giuseppe Conte, following talks last week with 13 counterparts including Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron.
She hopes to speak to the remaining EU leaders over the coming days.
But despite the intensive engagement, Number 10 insiders acknowledged it was “hard to judge” what progress would be made this week.
In a speech later this week, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox will set out what changes would be required to eliminate the legal risk of being indefinitely trapped in the insurance policy to avoid a hard border.
Mr Lidington said the Attorney General would today explain “how the legal tests that he has set about ensuring the so-called backstop cannot be used to trap the UK indefinitely could be met and overcome” and he expected MPs to put “great weight” on his advice.
Mrs May had made clear that she wanted to “reopen” the Withdrawal Agreement to secure legal reassurance on the backstop, said Mr Lidington, though he accepted that would be “very difficult”.
It comes after Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright suggested Mrs May might not seek to reopen
the legal text of the Withdrawal Agreement to make changes to the backstop, prompting anger from Eurosceptic Tories.
Mr Wright implied the agreement could be amended via a codicil, saying the “objective” mattered more than the “mechanism”.
Tory Brexiteer Sir John Redwood said it was not possible to “gloss” the Withdrawal Agreement.
“It needs significant changes, I’m not saying a little change would be sufficient, it requires a renegotiation,” he told the Press Association.
38 The number of days remaining until the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU at 11pm on March 29.