BMW, the Oxford Mini plant and #Brexit

We need to be clear about Tuesday's (5 March) announcement from BMW. The issue here is Brexit. There is only one way to ensure we keep a car industry in Oxford, or in the UK as a whole, and that is for us to stay in the EU, writes Oxford for Europe.

The country needs to think very very hard before taking such a damaging and irreversible step as Brexit. In Oxford the majority wants to remain in the EU. Now we know that most people up and down the country share that view and want the chance to say so. Our UK car industry as it exists today was built on the basis of EU membership and full access to the EU, its single market and its customs union.

The insane no-deal Brexit outcome with which our government continues to threaten us, and which its ERG faction actively craves, will kill the industry immediately. That was clear enough already, but now BMW, following others, have spelt it out for us.  Theresa May's deeply problematic blindfold Brexit deal would most likely lead to the same outcome, if only a little more slowly, because it leaves industry for years ahead with no assured framework for key investment decisions.

We call on Mini plant workers and their families, on union members, activists and everyone in our community whose prosperity depends on this industry, as well as all local MPs and councillors, to join the great 'Put It To The People March' in London on 23 March, which will demand a People's Vote on the terms of Brexit with an option to remain in the EU.

We call on Oxford City Council to renew its previous call for a People's Vote, and to match this with a call to campaign in that vote for a decision to remain.

Dr Peter Burke, chairman of Oxford for Europe, said: “The truth is clear, in the event of a no deal Brexit the jobs in Cowley will go the same way as the jobs in Swindon. If this is not a wake-up call for us in Oxford, nothing is.”

Information on the march is available here.