The head of Airbus (EPA: AIR) has said the UK government has “no clue” on how to leave the EU.
Tom Enders criticised the government’s approach to Brexit and stuck to previous warnings that the aerospace giant will pull out of the UK in the event of a hard Brexit.
“The sun is shining brightly on the UK, the English team is progressing towards the final, the RAF is preparing to celebrate its centenary and HMG still has no clue, no consensus on how to execute Brexit without severe harm,” Enders said at the Farnborough air show.
Airbus said in June that it planned to cut thousands of UK jobs due to Brexit concerns.
“We are seriously considering whether we should continue that development or we should find alternate solutions,” said Tom Williams, the chief operating officer of Airbus Commercial Aircraft on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in June.
Jaguar Land Rover and Rolls-Royce (LON: RR) have both voiced concerns over Brexit this week.
Jaguar Land Rover said that a bad Brexit deal would lead the company to rethink billions of pounds of UK investment. The group also warned that its 40,000 British employees would be subject to uncertain future if the UK leaves the EU single market.
Ralf Speth, the chief executive, said: “A bad Brexit deal would cost Jaguar Land Rover more than £1.2 billion profit each year. As a result, we would have to drastically adjust our spending profile – we have spent around £50 billion in the UK in the past five years, with plans for a further £80 billion more in the next five. This would be in jeopardy should we be faced with the wrong outcome.”
Rolls-Royce said this week that the group has drawn up a contingency plan to move production to Germany in the event of an undesirable Brexit.