Honda is set to announce the closure of its Swindon factory in 2022 according to this report on Reuters (HERE) with the loss of 3500 jobs. On ITV News last night the reporter was told it would 'rip the heart out of the community'. Swindon voted 54.7% to leave and I assume some of them would have worked at Honda or at one of the companies that relied on the Japanese factory. I wonder what they're thinking today?
Swindon's local Conservative MP has been commenting and, as you might expect, Brexit had nothing to do with the decision:
"Justin Tomlinson, a Conservative lawmaker for Swindon who voted for Brexit in 2016, said he had met with the business minister and representatives from Honda who had confirmed the plans.
" 'They were due to make a statement tomorrow morning, it’s obviously broken early', Tomlinson, lawmaker for North Swindon, told Reuters. 'This is not Brexit-related. It is a reflection of the global market. They are seeking to consolidate production in Japan.'”
How strange it is when people warn if you do A then B will happen, but when B actually happens those who argued for A then say B has nothing to do with A. Tomlinson voted leave in 2016 but seemed oddly non-committal saying it was his 'gut instinct' (HERE) and he admits to being a Eurosceptic. Note that as recently as January 2017 Honda confirmed its commitment to the UK despite Brexit (HERE) and said it would, "carry on building cars here despite the clear statement by Theresa May that Britain will leave the European Union (EU) single market".
Perhaps the worrying thing for Derby is that Toyota gave exactly the same assurances at the same time.
The news comes on the same day that Liam Fox and Jeremy Hunt were accused (HERE) of upsetting the Japanese by trying to hustle them into a quick trade deal:
"Japanese officials have reportedly accused Jeremy Hunt and Liam Fox of taking a “high-handed” approach towards a post-Brexit free trade deal, and briefly considered cancelling bilateral talks due to take place this week.
"The Financial Times cited unnamed officials in Tokyo who reacted with dismay to a letter sent on 8 February in which Hunt, the foreign secretary, and Fox, the international trade secretary, insisted that “time is of the essence” in securing a trade deal with Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy.
"Hunt and Fox also called for flexibility on both sides – an approach the paper said had been interpreted as criticism that Japan did not share their desire to quickly conclude a free trade agreement after Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union on 29 March.
They letter, which British officials said had employed standard diplomatic language, had briefly prompted Japanese officials to consider cancelling trade talks in Tokyo this week, the paper reported.
"According to the FT, they took exception to a line in which Hunt and Fox said 'we are committed to [speed and flexibility] and hope that Japan is too', interpreting it as an intimation that the Japanese side lacked a sense of urgency".
Chalk it all up to the so-called party of business. I wonder which Tory Brexiteer will step in and pump a few billion in?
The BBC's industrial correspondent, Simon Jack (HERE), asks if Japan is losing faith in Britain:
"Production at Swindon has been in decline for some time and is currently running at about half its capacity - another strike against it. But having said all that, Japanese companies are very long-term investors. In the mid-1980s, Margaret Thatcher championed the UK as the perfect outpost for Japanese carmakers looking for access to European markets.
"It worked. Honda, along with Toyota and Nissan, poured tens of billions of pounds into reviving the UK car industry. Since the referendum, the Japanese government, its UK ambassador and company managements have repeatedly warned about the corrosive effect of Brexit uncertainty and the possibility of losing frictionless trade with the EU"
This morning he told Radio 4 listeners there was a feeling among Japanese companies that Margaret Thatcher's commitment in the 1980s to provide Japan with a stable base for their manufacturers to trade with the EU has been broken.
Project fear no more for Swindon.
Update: Honda Japan have given a press conference where they have said explicitly closing the Swindon plant was 'not related to Brexit' (HERE), something that Brexit Central are clinging to (HERE). How much this is Japanese diplomatic language and how much is truth is hard to know.
But, the question that Brexiteers need to address is this: Will Brexit make it easier or harder to tempt other global manufacturers to Swindon? I think not.
Also, I note Justin Tomlinson told Auto Express :
"that the Swindon plant’s closure was totally unrelated to Brexit, with Honda also apparently set to close its Turkish factory where it builds the Civic Saloon".
In fact the Turkish plant is not closing as Honda Japan made clear - they will stop producing the Civic but the plant will remain open.
