UPDATE - BMW boss gives stark warning over future of UK plants, including Oxford 

PART-building a Mini in Oxford will be impossible if the Government drives ahead with a hard Brexit, a trade union boss has warned.

BMW heads warned last week that the Government needed to provide more details over Brexit and that ‘contingency plans’ might be needed in case the UK quit the Single Market and customs union.

Unite, which represents workers at the Cowley plant, agreed.

Assistant general secretary Tony Burke said: “BMW, just like all other major manufactures, is crying out for certainty if the UK is going to remain a world leader in the automobile sector.”

Mr Burke added: “That is simply not going to happen unless the government achieves a post-Brexit deal for frictionless trade.

“Although people voted to leave the UK, no one signed up to lose their jobs and have their livelihoods smashed as a result of the UK even contemplating a hard Brexit.”

About 4,500 people are employed at the Cowley plant.

An Oxfordshire MEP has also warned the Government that it must heed warnings from businesses.

John Howarth said said at least four key firms in Oxfordshire ‘face an uncertain future’ if the Government leaves the Single Market and customs union.

Airbus, which has a helicopter division HQ at Oxford Airport, warned last week that more clarity is required over Brexit.

Unipart, which employs 600 people in Oxford, has also called for more details.

Mr Howarth, Labour MEP for South East England, said: “[The Government] needs to make up their minds if they want to have a manufacturing industry at all.

“It’s time they took out their headphones and listened to the safety briefing before the Airbus plane leaves the UK.”

Meanwhile, Labour city councillor John Tanner travelled to London on Saturday as part of the Oxford for Europe group.

Mr Tanner and fellow city group members joined an estimated 100,000 protesters in the capital demanding a ‘People’s Vote’ on the final Brexit deal, supported by Lib Dem MP Layla Moran.

He said: “We can still stop this Brexit nonsense if we try hard enough.”

On Sunday, health secretary Jeremy Hunt told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that ‘threats’ by businesses over Brexit were ‘completely inappropriate’.

He added: “The more that we undermine Theresa May the more likely we are to end up with a fudge, which would be an absolute disaster for everyone.”