Jaguar Land Rover Chief Executive, Ralf Speth, has used a keynote speech at a summit in Birmingham to warn of the impact of a hard brexit on the British motor industry.

Speth was speaking at the Zero Emission Vehicle Summit to underline how seriously the hard-line Brexit could damage jobs in the UK. The JLR boss have previously warned on the concerns, but this is his starkest threat since being made CEO in 2010.

He said: “Jobs have been shed when they should have been created. A thousand lost as a result of diesel policy. Those numbers will be counted in the tens of thousands if we do not get the right Brexit deal.

“We will not be able to build cars, if the motorway to and from Dover becomes a car park, where the vehicle carrying parts - vital to our processes - is stationary. Any friction at our borders puts our production in jeopardy - at a cost of £60 million a day. Unfettered access to the Single Market is as important a part to our business, as wheels are to our cars.

“Six months from Brexit and uncertainty means that many companies are being forced to make decisions about their businesses that will not be reversed, whatever the outcome, just to survive. Talk diesel, petrol, hybrid or electric. Free, frictionless trade and clarity are the paramount fuels for our business.”

Speth also focused on the UK government’s policy on diesel cars, which is choosing to prohibit all diesel cars, rather than just the older more polluting vehicles.

“A disincentive has been placed on the newer, cleaner models, through tougher regulations and higher taxation," he said. "It has cost jobs; at Jaguar Land Rover 1000 people have been let go - with all the knock-on effects to their families and our local economy. More may be lost in the future.

“Let us focus on that we wish to build, rather than that we wish to ban.”

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