Land Rover chief fears job losses without clean deal

LONDON — Britain’s Treasury chief said Tuesday that striking a divorce deal with the European Union over the next two months is “doable,” while the boss of Jaguar Land Rover warned that tens of thousands of jobs could be lost if the country crashes out of the EU with no agreement.

With Brexit a little more than six months away, concerns have grown that the sides will not reach a deal because the British Parliament and the governing Conservative Party are divided on what Britain’s future relationship with the EU should be.

In that event, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth said a so-called “hard Brexit” could result in the “worst of times” for the U.K. He said the U.K. is the company’s “home” but that a hard Brexit would cost Jaguar Land Rover, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, more than $1.6 billion a year.

“It’s horrifying, wiping our profit, destroying investment in the autonomous, zero-emissions (technologies) we want to share,” he told a Zero Emission Vehicle Summit in Birmingham, England.

He said the loss of jobs would be “counted into tens of thousands if we do not get the right Brexit deal.”

Hopes are fading that Britain and the EU can strike a deal at an EU summit in October as originally planned, but there are growing expectations that the EU is planning another meeting for November.

Treasury chief Philip Hammond told a House of Lords committee that he agreed with the EU’S chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, that a deal was possible in six to eight weeks if both sides are realistic.

“I think it is doable,” Hammond said.

Business groups and civil servants say a “no-deal” Brexit could cause disruption to shipping, barriers to trade with the bloc and even shortages of essential goods.

Hammond said that “if we leave the European Union without a deal … we could expect a period when there would be some turbulence.”

He said it was “very welcome” that Bank of England Governor Mark Carney had agreed to delay his departure date from June 2019 to January 2020 to help navigate any Brexit-related economic bumps.