Airbus blasts Brexit 'disgrace': Boss Tom Enders says Government is 'threatening to destroy a century of development'

The boss of Airbus today branded the Government’s handling of Brexit a “disgrace” and issued a stark warning that the aerospace giant could quit Britain.

Tom Enders also warned the public not to believe the “madness” of Brexiteers seeking to play down the threat to hundreds of thousands of jobs from the UK crashing out of the EU.

In a clear sign that boardroom patience with Theresa May’s dithering is now snapping, Mr Enders said: “It is a disgrace that, more than two years after the result of the 2016 referendum, businesses are still unable to plan properly for the future.

“We, along with many of our peers, have repeatedly called for clarity, but we still have no idea what is really going on here.”

He unleashed his extraordinary attack as a growing number of MPs were swinging behind moves in Parliament to block a “no deal” and to delay Brexit happening on March 29.

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Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said he took the warning from the Airbus chief “very seriously” and stressed it highlighted the need for a deal.

Aerospace giant Airbus employs more than 14,000 people in the UK with around 110,000 more jobs connected in supply chains.

“If there’s a no-deal Brexit, we at Airbus will have to make potentially very harmful decisions for the UK,” added chief executive Mr Enders.

“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.”

While factories would not close overnight, Airbus could be forced to “redirect” future investment for its long-term strategy to other countries, he explained.

Its UK operations, at 25 sites, generate around £6 billion of turnover annually, making it the country’s largest aerospace company, building components, including wings, for a broad spectrum of products from planes to helicopters and satellites.

Mr Enders stressed that Britain’s multi billion-pound, world-leading aerospace sector is “standing at a precipice” with “Brexit threatening to destroy a century of development based on education, research and human capital”.

Former Welsh Secretary and leading Brexiteer David Jones rebuffed the idea that the Broughton Airbus plant in north Wales could be scaled down or close.

He said Mr Enders had “made threats such as this for some time”, stressing a large proportion of the factory’s workers had voted to Leave.

However, Steve Turner, assistant general secretary of the giant Unite union, said: “No-deal Brexit fantasists should pay heed to this strongest warning yet from Airbus”.

A No10 source said: “The PM is working hard to deliver the certainty that business needs.

“That’s why she is focused on getting the changes which are required to allow Parliament to support her deal.”

Whitehall insiders suggested Mr Enders’ comments were directed across the political spectrum, not just the Government.

Advertising tycoon Sir Martin Sorrell also emphasised that business is in “a state of total confusion” about the UK’s future.

“People who are running businesses are trying to plan on the basis of three or four possible scenarios, so it is an impossible situation,” he told the Today programme.

“It is very messy because you don’t know what is going to happen from March 29.”

The grim warnings from Mr Enders and Sir Martin threatened to overshadow attempts by Chancellor Philip Hammond to convince corporate bosses, gathered at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss alpine resort of Davos, that post-Brexit Britain will still be a “great place to do business”.

He announced a £100 million fund to create 1,000 new PhD places across the UK to develop the next generation of artificial intelligence including for use in life-saving medical technology, improve voice-recognition software for business and consumers, and early warning systems for toxic air.

“We are leading the way in the tech revolution. The UK digital sector is now worth over £130 billion with jobs growing at twice the rate of those in the wider economy,” he said.

“I want to ensure we remain the standard bearer, so we must invest in our new economy so that it can adapt and remain competitive.”

But other EU countries are targeting companies in the UK seeking to lure them across the Channel or to Dublin.

French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said his Government is talking to “many companies” about relocating from Britain post-Brexit.

The Dutch government is in talks with 250 firms to try to get them to move from the UK to the Netherlands.

Sony is shifting its European headquarters from Britain to Amsterdam to avoid Brexit disruption.

Ferry operator P&O is re-registering its UK fleet under the flag of Cyprus so it can continue to use EU tax arrangements.

And appliance maker Dyson, whose boss Sir James Dyson championed Leave, is to move its HQ to Singapore, from Malmesbury in Wiltshire, although it said this had nothing to do with Brexit.

With talks deadlocked in Parliament and Brussels over Brexit, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called for “creativity” to resolve the crisis and said there was no going back “at this stage” on the Withdrawal Agreement.

He also appealed to Poles to “come back to Poland” from the UK and join its thriving economy.

Brussels chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier insisted the “backstop” for the Irish border would not be dumped, as demanded by Brexiteers, and warned that if there is not a breakthrough, the UK and EU were heading for “a more or less bumpy or accidental no-deal on March 30”.

He was meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel today amid growing signs that the EU is ready to back a delay to the March 29th Brexit Day if the UK comes up with a credible proposal to sort out the chaos.