Airbus operates a huge wing-making plant at Broughton in Deeside which employs more than 6,000 people, many of them living in and around the Liverpool city region. Tony McDonough reports
Planemaker Airbus has sent a chilling warning to the UK Government that a no-deal Brexit could lead to the company – and its 14,000 jobs – leave Britain for good.
Airbus operates a huge wing-making plant at Broughton in Deeside which employs more than 6,000 people, many of them living in and around the Liverpool city region.
The company operates 25 sites across the UK and its wider supply chain employs more than 100,000 people. Added to that, Airbus contributes around £1.7bn in tax revenues for the UK every year.
In a radio interview with the BBC on Friday morning the chief operating officer of Airbus Commercial Aircraft, Tom Enders, said an any scenario Brexit had “severe negative consequences” for the business.
And he added if the country exits the European Union single market and customs union without a transition deal then the impact on its UK operations would be “significant”. He added: “Put simply, a no-deal scenario directly threatens Airbus’ future in the UK.
Airbus makes wings for the A320, A330/A340, A350 and A380 passenger planes in the UK and it also said the current planned Brexit transition period, due to end in December 2020, was too short for it to make changes to its supply chain.
Mr Enders addd: “Over the next weeks we need to get clarity. We are already beginning to press the button on our crisis actions. We have got to be able to protect our employees, our customers and our shareholders and we can’t do that in the current situation.
“I’m an engineer not a politician I have to deal in certainty. And we need to have clarity. We can’t continue with the current vacuum in terms of clarity.”
The uncertainty within the UK Government is the opposite of clear with Tory retainers and brexiteers battling for the ear of Prime Minister Theresa May. Mrs May has already stated the UK will leave both the Customs Union and the Single Market but has yet to outline a clear plan on how that would happen.