Sweden is embarking on a bus tour of the UK to reassure its 100,000 expatriates and British-based Swedish businesses worried about the threats posed by a hard Brexit.

Torbjörn Sohlström, the Swedish ambassador to the UK, said thousands of Swedes in the UK were concerned about their future right to remain in the UK. His “pop-up embassy” on wheels is designed to give them an opportunity to discuss concerns.

Sohlström kicked off the two-week tour in Brighton on Saturday, inviting the Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus to sing Abba hits 45 years after the Swedish foursome won Eurovision in the town with Waterloo. He said the UK-wide bus trip was as much about trying to reassure Swedish businesses as it was Swedish people living in the UK.

“Swedish companies believe in the UK, but I know of quite a lot of investments that are not taking place because of the uncertainty,” he said. “I speak to most of the big Swedish companies, and I know there are investment decisions that are not happening.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sohlström invited the Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus to sing Abba hits. Photograph: Andrew Hasson

Sohlström, who was appointed ambassador to the UK before the referendum but took up his post after the June 2016 vote, said concerns raised by Swedes were being echoed in the embassies of the other EU 27 countries.

“It is similar for every embassy,” he said. “Even if there are guarantees, there are a lot of questions about citizens’ rights.”

Sohlström said concern was heightened last week when thousands of UK-based EU nationals were unable to vote on Thursday, despite having done everything they could to register.”

Many of the most successful Swedes in music, business and technology have come to London

More than 1,000 Swedish companies have operations in the UK, employing more than 100,000 UK workers. The biggest are Ikea, which employs 12,000 people, clothing company H&M and security firm Securitas.

Others include truck and bus manufacturer Scania – which built the blue and yellow bus in which Sohlström is touring the UK offering coffee and cinnamon buns to anyone interested in Sweden – and Stena Lines, the ferry company that will take the bus from Scotland to Belfast. Fjällräven backpacks are being given away as prizes.

After Brighton, the bus will head to Cambridge to visit the headquarters of AstraZeneca, the FTSE-100 listed pharmaceuticals company. “If there is one company which represents the strong links between our two countries it is AstraZeneca,” Sohlström said. The firm was created in 1999 through the merger of the Swedish Astra AB and the UK’s Zeneca.

Sohlström said he was in talks with the UK government about how to keep trade going between Sweden and the UK in the event of a hard Brexit, but that it would be difficult if the UK did not retain strong ties to the EU.

More than 600,000 EU citizens apply for UK settled status Read more

Britain is Sweden’s fourth largest export market, worth 140bn Swedish kronor (£11.5bn). The value of exports almost doubled between 2012 and 2017. Sweden is the UK’s eighth largest export country, with £10.9bn of UK goods and services sent to Sweden every year.

London has the biggest Swedish population of any city outside Sweden, and the UK has long been the preferred destination for Swedes moving overseas or as a base to expand businesses internationally.

“London is often their first step out into the world. They [Swedes in the UK] have built their lives here, been very successful and they make a real contribution,” he said.

The Swedish “reassurance tour” will also visit Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff and Manchester.