AMERICAN

writer Mark Twain sent a telegram noting: ‘Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.’

Nissan must have been similarly tempted this week when a trade press gossip column in Germany claimed the Japanese company and its French partner Renault were about to announce they were closing their Sunderland plant over Brexit and quitting the UK.

The reports were gleefully leapt on by arch-Remainers eager to exploit any Brexit Schadenfreude, and given wider circulation by the motor industry’s Automotive News and the BBC.

But with a Brexit deal deadline looming, Nissan, which has invested £400 million to produce the thirdgeneration Qashqai in Britain from next year (pictured above and yet to be unveiled, hence the camouflage), said: ‘These rumours are not true.’

However, they did say a nodeal Brexit and resulting tariffs could threaten the plant’s long-term sustainability.