How will Brexit affect the UK’s car industry?

Analysis: Falling out of the EU without a deal would, says Sean O’Grady, lead to the inexorable decline of a once great British industry – although the impact would not be immediate

A no-deal Brexit could put the brakes on the UK’s automotive industry (Getty)

There is no doubt in the British car industry – among manufacturers, competent suppliers and the retail trade – that Brexit is bad, at best a matter of “damage limitation”. They welcome Theresa May’s deal, but only because it is better than the “existential” threat that no deal, trading on Word Trade Organisation terms, would involve.

This, for example, is what Mike Hawes, the chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said on the eve of the meaningful vote: “As MPs prepare to vote on the government’s Brexit deal, we urge them to remember they hold the future of the British automotive industry – and the hundreds and thousands of jobs it supports – in their hands. Brexit is already causing us damage – in output, costs and jobs – but this does not compare with the catastrophic consequences of being cut adrift from our biggest trading partner overnight.”

“A managed no deal is a fantasy,” Hawes concluded.