Brexiteer Julia Hartley-Brewer claims Honda factory closure is due to ‘diesel’ and people made an important point
Journalist and radio host Julia Hartley-Brewer clashed with critics on Twitter after she claimed the recent Honda factory closure in Swindon was due to the factory making diesel cars that nobody wants to "buy anymore".
She shared an opinion piece published in autocar.co.uk, in which the author argued falling diesel demand was a cause of the closure, which puts 3,500 jobs at risk.
Taking to Twitter, she wrote:
People pointed out that the UK factory doesn’t, uh, make many diesel cars…
A Honda spokesperson said:
Her words have prompted a wave of criticism, with several people reminding her that Nissan chairman Gianluca de Ficchy recently announced that the company will not be making the next-generation X-Trail in the UK in part due to Brexit "uncertainty".
One Twitter user summed it up perfectly:
Others followed suit.
Numerous economic experts have said Brexit uncertainty has influenced a number of big companies to move their base of operations out of the UK.
Writer Jim Holder wrote on the same website Hartley-Brewer is citing, that "Brexit is a problem for UK automotive, whatever your political stance".
He wrote:
Investment in the British car industry fell by 50 per cent in 2018 as firms held back on spending dur to Brexit-related uncertainty.
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