Parliament’s failure to agree on Brexit is holding back investment, British Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Greg Clark said after Nissan Motor Co abandoned plans to expand production in the UK.
Clark said while the company’s decision to produce its X-Trail model in Japan instead of Sunderland, northeast England, was “made on broader business grounds,” there is “damaging uncertainty” about the terms of Britain’s departure from the EU.
Nissan, which has already received ￡2.6 million (US$3.4 million) of a nine-year, ￡61 million program of government support, will have to reapply for the grants “in the light of the changed investments that they’re making,’’ Clark told the House of Commons on Monday.
Across the industry “there are investments poised to be made if we can settle this question of the terms of our exit and future relationship,” Clark said, before warning that a no-deal divorce from the EU would be “ruinous for our prospects.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May started a two-day visit to Northern Ireland yesterday as she seeks support for her divorce deal with the EU. The embattled premier has until next week to secure changes that will satisfy anti-EU members of her Conservative Party and win her a majority in Parliament.
British Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, who said the Nissan decision had more to do with the market for diesel vehicles than Brexit, called on the EU to compromise and said the March 29 deadline for leaving the bloc will not be delayed.
“We want to work with the EU to reach a deal, but if they are not prepared to do that they will have to take responsibility that we are heading towards a no-deal exit,” Grayling said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. “I’ve been in every Cabinet meeting, and there’s been no conversation about delaying post-March 29. We are not delaying Article 50.”
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