REMOANER MINISTER S’ BREXIT ‘STITCH-UP’
Cabinet rebels accused of egging on firms to say they’ll leave the UK
PRO-REMAIN ministers and big business were accused of a ‘stitch-up’ last night after Airbus issued a bloodcurdling warning about Brexit.
The French-based firm, which employs 14,000 people in the UK, said it could quit Britain if the country leaves the EU without a deal.
The aerospace giant, which campaigned against Brexit during the referendum, said the warning was not part of Project Fear, but was a ‘dawning reality’. It said it would ‘reconsider its investments in the UK, and its long-term footprint in the country’ if Britain was forced to leave the single market and customs union next March without any transition agreement in place.
The multi-national firm said it could abandon plans to build new aircraft wings in the UK and switch production to China, the US or elsewhere in Europe. BMW also spoke out to demand ‘clarity’ by the end of the summer on the Government’s plans for customs and trade arrangements after Brexit. The German car giant makes the Mini and Rolls-Royces in the UK and employs about 8,000 people here.
Its UK boss, Ian Robertson, told the BBC: ‘If we don’t get clarity in the next couple of months we have to start making those contingency plans – which means investing money in systems that we might not need... which means making the UK less competitive than it is in a very competitive world right now.’
Airbus’s warning followed talks with Business Secretary Greg Clark earlier this week, and came hours after Chancellor Philip Hammond set out his vision for a Brexit that leaves the UK tied closely to Brussels.
The two men are both understood to have been privately encouraging big companies to go public with their concerns about Brexit to strengthen their hand in the Cabinet debate over future customs arrangements.
But Eurosceptic MPs accused them of using Airbus to try to tilt the political debate in their favour.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘It’s a stitch-up. Airbus want some certainty on future arrangements so that they can make provision. I agree with that, but it is the EU that is to blame for the lack of certainty – they have refused to discuss trade for a year.
‘What we are seeing here is ministers and the Treasury using Airbus to try to bounce the Prime Minister into staying into something that looks very like the customs union.
‘They think that if they can scare people enough they will secure their aim of making sure we only semileave the EU. It is a political game.’
Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs, said: ‘It’s an amazing coincidence how these things come about.
‘Straight after a meeting with the Business Secretary and a speech by the Chancellor, big business comes out and says exactly what they want. It is hard to believe there is not some element of co-ordination.’
On Thursday, less than 24 hours before Airbus went public, Mr Clark issued a fresh call to allow free movement of company workers after Brexit – citing Airbus as an example of the type of firm that would need help.
He said: ‘So far the debate has focused mainly on goods, about how our new customs arrangements with the EU need to keep the borders flowing and avoid costly delays and paperby
‘It’s an amazing coincidence’