Airbus calls Brexit process a disgrace, threatens to leave the UK

Airbus SE said it could be forced to move future investments out of the UK in case of a no-deal divorce from the European Union, slamming the “madness” of Brexit supporters who assume the planemaker will not abandon Britain.

“If there is a no-deal Brexit, we at Airbus will have to make potentially very harmful decisions for the UK,” said Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders, who has been one of the most outspoken business leaders on the topic. “Please don’t listen to the Brexiteers’ madness which asserts that, because we have huge plants here, we will not move and we will always be here. They are wrong.”

The comments, made in an unusual video message shared by the company Thursday, are the strongest yet since the 2016 referendum from the executive who has repeatedly warned of the fallout from a worst-case Brexit scenario. It ramps up pressure on Theresa May, the British prime minister caught in the crossfire between pro-EU members of her Conservative Party who are seeking to force her to postpone the March 29 Brexit deadline, and staunch eurosceptics who are threatening to bring down her government if she does.

Airbus, which is based in Toulouse, France, directly employs 14,000 people in the UK and supports another 110,000, Enders said in the video posted Thursday. The company has production sites in Filton, in the southwest of England, and in Wales where it manufactures wings for its range of commercial aircraft.

Time for reaching a decision on Brexit is running out. If the UK cannot agree to a deal in the next nine weeks, the country will leave the EU in a disorderly split that British authorities warn will risk a recession, and a hit to the pound of as much as 25 per cent. Next week Parliament is slated to vote on a series of options for Brexit’s next steps, including a proposal to force the government to ask the EU to extend the deadline.