Theresa May is scrambling to appease business fury over her handling of Brexit today Airbus threatened to pull out of Britain.
The aerospace giant said it would quit the UK if there was no deal with the EU – axing tens of thousands of jobs.
The firm employs 14,000 people at 25 sites across the country – including Bristol, Portsmouth and north Wales.
However, the impact could go wider with an estimated 110,000 jobs at risk in companies supplying the European aircraft maker.
Airbus chief operating officer Tom Williams made the dire warning of potential job losses in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The PM (pictured right at a Windrush ceremony today) played down the prospect today, saying she had already ‘listened to concerns’ from business and plans were making ‘good progress’
The unveiling of an A320 jet in 2014. Sales of aircraft like this helps Airbus generate £1.7bn in UK tax revenues
Airbus, which generates £1.7billion in tax revenues, said it would ‘reconsider its investments in the UK, and its long-term footprint in the country’ if Britain left the single market and customs union without a transition agreement.
The PM’s spokesman played down the prospect today, saying she had already ‘listened to concerns’ from business and plans were making ‘good progress’.
‘We are confident we are going to get a good deal, one that ensures trade is as free and frictionless as possible,’ the spokesman said.
‘We have made good progress – part of that work is listening to business.
‘What commercial companies choose to do in the public domain is down to them.’
The blunt statement from Airbus is one of the most significant interventions by a major company since the 2016 EU referendum.
It would make the firm the first big manufacturer to pull investment from the UK over fears about the stalled Brexit negotiations.
Publishing a Brexit ‘risk assessment’ on its website, the firm also called on the Government to extend the planned transition period due to run until December 2020 if a deal is agreed, saying it was too short for the business to reorganise its supply chain.
If there was no extension it would ‘carefully monitor any new investments in the UK and refrain from extending the UK suppliers/partners base’, it said.
Tory MP Stephen Crabb said the warning from Airbus should be a ‘wake-up call’.
The former Secretary of State for Wales, who represents Preseli Pembrokeshire, tweeted: ‘The enormous Airbus factory in North Wales is one of the jewels in the crown of UK manufacturing. This is a wake-up call. A pragmatic, sensible Brexit that protects trade & jobs is vital.’
And Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: ‘If proof was needed that the PM’s Brexit red lines need to be abandoned (and fast), this is it.’
Tom Williams, the chief operating officer of Airbus Commercial Aircraft, said: ‘In any scenario, Brexit has severe negative consequences for the UK aerospace industry and Airbus in particular.
‘Therefore, immediate mitigation measures would need to be accelerated.
‘While Airbus understands that the political process must go on, as a responsible business we require immediate details on the pragmatic steps that should be taken to operate competitively.
‘Without these, Airbus believes that the impacts on our UK operations could be significant.
‘We have sought to highlight our concerns over the past 12 months, without success.
‘Far from Project Fear, this is a dawning reality for Airbus. Put simply, a no-deal scenario directly threatens Airbus’ future in the UK.’
In its risk assessment, Airbus says it is ‘getting increasingly concerned by the lack of progress on the Brexit process’.
It says it supports more than 110,000 jobs among 4,000 suppliers in the UK, with parts crossing the Channel ‘multiple times’.
This business relies on ‘frictionless trade’ under customs union and single market rules, it added, saying ‘any change in customs procedures, logistics and environmental standards would have major industrial and cost impact’.
It went on: ‘A no-deal Brexit must be avoided, as it would force Airbus to reconsider its footprint in the country, its investments in the UK and at large its dependency on the UK.
An Airbus employee at the firm’s Filton plant in Bristol works on the tailfin of an A440M in this file photo
‘Given the ‘No-deal/hard Brexit’ uncertainties, the company’s dependence on and investment in the flagship Wing Of Tomorrow programme would also have to be revisited, and corresponding key competencies grown outside the UK.
‘This extremely negative outcome for Airbus would be catastrophic.
‘It would impair our ability to benefit from highly qualified British resources, it would also severely undermine UK efforts to keep a competitive and innovative aerospace industry, while developing high value jobs and competencies.’
The news was greeted by anger from Labour MPs.
Darren Jones, whose Bristol North West constituency contains Airbus’s Filton wing plant, attacked the Government for only listening to ‘hardline pro-Brexit MPs and not to the businesses that employ thousands of British workers, including Airbus’.
The People’s Vote supporter added: ‘Thousands of skilled, well-paid jobs are now on the line because of the shambolic mess the Government have created over the Brexit negotiations.’
Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer hit out on Twitter, saying: ‘If proof was needed that the PM’s Brexit red lines need to be abandoned (and fast), this is it.’
And former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie wrote: ‘And we’re all supposed to go along with this Government’s disastrous #Brexit strategy?! Constituents in manufacturing & service sectors who jobs are at risk will be unforgiving of any more MP fence-sitting ‘constructive ambiguity’.’
Ben Bradshaw described it as ‘devastating news’, adding: ‘When are we going to wake up to the disaster of this Tory #BrexitShambles??’, while Chuka Umunna questioned: ‘What will it take for the establishments running Westminster to wake up!’