[ianch99]

Some more evidence that a No Deal will adversely impact the UK:

No-deal Brexit could shut down car plants in UK, Japan tells Johnson and Hunt

Just to remind him how disastrous a no-deal Brexit could be, the Japanese foreign minister, Taro Kono, was on the Today programme today talking about it, and he said it could threaten the future of Japanese car plants in the UK. It is fair to assume he was not exaggerating for comic effect. He said:

There are over 1,000 Japanese companies operating in the United Kingdom, so we are very concerned with this no-deal Brexit. That would have a very negative impact on their operations ...

There are a few Japanese auto manufacturers operating in the United Kingdom, and some parts are coming from continental Europe. Right now they have a very smooth operation; their stock for each part is only for a few hours.

But if there is a no-deal Brexit, and if they have to go through actual customs inspections physically, those operations may not be able to continue. And many companies are worried about the implications, because they do not know what is going to happen. They don’t know what happens legally or physically. So some companies have already started moving their operations to other places in Europe.

We do not want to disrupt the economic relationship with the UK. So we’ve been asking the UK government: let the Japanese companies know what they can expect and things should happen smoothly without any disruption.

Whenever we have had meetings [with the UK government] that was the issue - please no no-deal Brexit.

Kono also said that he hopes whoever won the Tory leadership contest would take account of Japanese concerns about a no-deal Brexit.