. . . and fears for UK jobs as Nissan wields axe

NISSAN is slashing 12,500 jobs around the world as it grapples with a slump in demand. The Japanese car maker launched a programme of brutal cost cutting as profits collapsed to just £12m in the three months to June, down 98pc on the same period a year earlier.

It poses a headache for Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom, as Nissan is one of the industry’s largest employers in the UK.

Union sources have said they do not expect further cuts at the company’s plant in Sunderland, which employs almost 6,000 staff.

However, there will be calls for ministers to seek urgent clarification from the car maker.

Nissan has been one of the most vocal critics of a No Deal Brexit, which it has said could cause disaster for the car industry.

In February it axed plans to builds a new X-Trail model at the Sunderland site, blaming uncertainty over our departure from the European Union, and a month later announced an end to production of two of its Infiniti vehicles. The factory is already going through 500 voluntary redundancies.

The company is also fighting against a wider slump in the motor industry as customers shun diesel vehicles because they are concerned about pollution.

Sales fell during the quarter in the US, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Around 6,400 of the 12,500 jobs being cut have already gone, at eight sites. The rest will be slashed from six plants by 2022.

The job cuts came after Nissan’s profits collapsed amid sluggish sales and rising costs, deepening a crisis at Japan’s second biggest car maker.

It revealed its first quarter earnings plunged 98.5pc to just £11.9m yesterday, the company’s worst performance since a loss in the March 2008 quarter.