Airbus Isn’t Going To Leave The UK, Brexit Or Not. Don’t Be Silly

Another little brick in that pyramid of Project Fear – Airbus will leave the UK if Brexit happens without a deal. The correct response to which is don’t be silly. Wings are the second high tech bit of a modern aircraft after the engines. The making of wings is no more likely to move out of Britain than the Rolls Royce factory making the engines is. There are no tariff issues which will be in operation – planes tend to go in and out of countries quite a lot after all – so it’s all just political posturing:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Airbus warns Theresa May it could leave UK if there’s a no deal Brexit[/perfectpullquote]

Nonsense.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Engineering giant Airbus increased pressure on Theresa May with a stark warning it could walk away from the UK if it crashes out of the EU without a Brexit deal. The firm’s chief executive Tim Anders launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister’s “disgraceful” Government over its handling of the departure. In a direct warning to Mrs May, he said: “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”. [/perfectpullquote]

It’s not the factory which is the point. It’s the labour force. Which isn’t going to move therefore nor is the factory.

There are also no issues of parts crossing borders innumerable times and so on. Seriously, the company has built its own special planes to move those wings around. People just don’t go to that sort of expense and then shift factory location over some paperwork to cross a national boundary. Airbus isn’t about to leave the UK over Brexit, deal or no deal.