A BMW boss has warned the company will close its British plants, putting 8,000 jobs at risk, if Brexit causes delays to its supply chain at the border.
The stark warning by Stephan Freismuth, the car giant’s customs chief, comes days after Airbus said it could leave the UK if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal – costing thousands of jobs.
And it will ratchet up pressure on Theresa May to get her warring Cabinet and Brussels to agree on a plan for Brexit.
Around 8,000 people are employed by BMW in the UK, including the Mini plant outside Oxford and the Rolls-Royce factory at Goodwood.
The stark warning by Stephan Freismuth, the car giant’s customs chief, comes days after Airbus said it could leave the UK if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal (pictured, the BMW Mini plant in Oxford)
Britain’s booming car plants are a rare success story in the country’s manufacturing industry, and the closure would deal a major blow to ministers and workers.
Stephan Freismuth told the Financial Times: ‘We always said we can do our best and prepare everything, but if, at the end of the day the supply chain will have a stop at the border, then we cannot produce our products in the UK.’
He said that BMW has invested significant amounts in the UK and wants to see the plants stay open.
But he warned that any disruption to the flow of supplies over the UK border would damage the company’s ‘just in time’ manufacturing model and hike costs.
Currently the UK is in the EU single market and customs union – this means that goods can be traded and transported freely over the border within the bloc without checks and delays.
Mrs May has said Britain is leaving both of these – a move which will allow the UK to strike new free trade deals and bring in immigration controls.
She wants to negotiate a new free trade deal with the bloc to allow trade to be as free and frictionless as possible to allow firms like BMW to stick to their business models.
But she is under severe pressure from all sides to spell out the details of what she wants this future relationship to look like.
The Government’s Brexit plans have been hit with delays as she struggles to get her warring Cabinet – which is split between Remainers and Leavers – to sign up to a single plan.
She has delayed the publication on a crucial white paper on her customs plans until after the key EU summit on Thursday this week – meaning no real progress is expected to be made at the meeting.
The PM will gather her Cabinet for a crunch meeting at her country retreat Chequers next week where ministers will thrash out a deal among themselves on Brexit.
Mrs May is facing the heat after a string of warnings from businesses that they will pull jobs from the country unless they get clarity urgently.
Critics have accused the businesses of repeating their ‘project fear’ tactics of the EU referendum – when doom-laden warnings that jobs will be lost because of Brexit failed to inspire voters.
But the PM had wanted to thrash out a final deal with the EU by a key summit in October – leaving her just four months left to get all parties on board.
It now looks like that date will slip, but the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier has made it clear that the final deadline for a deal must be the end of the year.
The dire warnings from businesses come just a week after the PM managed to steer the Brexit Bill through Parliament after she narrowly avoided a humiliating backbench revolt on her plans.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt sparked anger among business leaders at the weekend when he told companies their dire warnings risks ‘undermining’ the PM’s hands in negotiations.
Theresa May (pictured at Downing Street yesterday with European Council President Donald Tusk) is under intense pressure to give more clarity on her Brexit plans