Rolls-Royce claims Brexit would lead to investment uncertainty

Rolls-Royce has said leaving the EU would lead to investment uncertainty and help US rivals.

Engineering giant Rolls-Royce has written to employees saying it wants the UK to stay in the European Union, urging them to vote stay in next week’s referendum.

The firm said Brexit would “limit any company’s ability to budget and plan for the future”.

Warren East, Chief Executive at Rolls-Royce said: “It is like we are running a multi-lap race and with each lap we are giving the competitors a 10-yard head start.

“It’s all about uncertainty and our position in Europe,” he told Dominic O’Connell on BBC’s Today Programme.

“We have a very interconnected operation around Europe…We’re making investment decisions all the time about where to place various parts of our operation…and uncertainty created by Brexit puts a lot of those decisions on hold, and that pause is something that our US competitors don’t have to cope with.”

The British company accounts for £1 in every £50 of British exports. It has a strong relationship with Europe, where it employs 37,000 people – three quarters of its total workforce. The group, which has significant presence in Derby, Germany, the US and Singapore, is in the middle of an expansion plan aimed at doubling the number of aero engines produced each year from the current 400.

Rolls-Royce is in the middle of a large expansion drive, with the intention of doubling the number of aero engines it makes.

Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI Director General, said: “Access to the single market allows ambitious firms to buy and sell easily in 27 other countries and smaller firms to be part of supply chains that span the continent, creating jobs here at home and making the UK more prosperous.

“The Leave campaign admit that their preferred choice means withdrawing British firms’ access to the EU single market of 500 million people. This will put British businesses out in the cold and hit jobs.”

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