Jaguar Land Rover Stops UK Production For A Week Due To Brexit Uncertainty

Jaguar Land Rover has ceased production at its UK factories for the week in response to the uncertainty surrounding Britain’s terms of exit from the European Union.

BBC News reports that the move impacts thousands of staff at the British automaker’s Castle Bromwich, Wolverhampton and Halewood facilities across the country.

Jaguar Land Rover scheduled in the alteration to production back in January, when the UK was expected to leave the European Union on March 29. While that date has since gone by without the Brexit actually happening, the car manufacturer has pushed through with its plans. JLR has also scheduled in a production closure at its sites over Easter.

Also Read: How Badly Should Britain’s Car Industry Fear A No-Deal Brexit?

Mike Graham, from the Unite workers union, said the production closure was the right thing to do.

“We had to make some plans to protect the business as best we could and we started talking about this in January. We knew we had to take reactive action to mitigate the potential effect of a bad Brexit or no-deal Brexit. Suppliers need notice to get their parts across to us… It was a prudent thing to do.”

Jaguar Land Rover has been an outspoken critic of Brexit and has previously warned that if the UK can’t agree to a trade deal with the EU, its profits could be slashed by up to £1.2 billion ($1.57 billion).

Earlier this month, both BMW’s Mini brand and PSA Group’s Vauxhall followed through with plans to temporarily shut down their UK plants, too, despite a delay in Brexit.