It doesn’t take long for Katherine Bennett’s frustration to boil over when the issue of Brexit is raised. “It’s not as easy as Jacob Rees-Mogg thinks,” said the boss of Airbus UK. “We don’t just export cheese or cider to another country.
“We have parts that go back and forth to different countries to be worked on – sometimes several times. That is why frictionless borders are important.”
Airbus has been at the centre of a political storm since it warned last month that it could quit the UK if it leaves the EU single market and customs union without a transition deal.
The pan-European aerospace giant is one of Britain’s biggest manufacturers, employing 14,000 people at 25 sites, including 6,000 at Broughton in north Wales. It also supports more than 100,000 jobs in the wider supply chain and spent £5bn with more than 4,000 UK suppliers last year.
The Broughton plant builds the wings for all Airbus planes and is seen as being most vulnerable to a hard Brexit because components could be held up at the border.
Airbus’s warning drew howls of protest from Brexiter politicians, who accused it of being selfish and not acting in the country’s best interests.
In Pegasus House, a restored art deco building at Airbus’s plant in Filton, Bristol, Bennett said: “I’m not sure that speaking up for your business is selfish. It’s just making business sense.
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