British car production fell deeper into recession last month as disruption around the second abortive Brexit deadline left assembly lines idling.

Industry figures show a 16.5 per cent fall in car factory output last month. Only 107,753 cars were produced after manufacturers including Jaguar Land Rover and BMW’s Mini plant ordered contingency shutdowns before it became apparent that Boris Johnson had failed to get Brexit done by October 31.

In the first 11 months of the year production fell by 14.5 per cent to 1.23 million. Britain is in line to have built about 1.3 million cars this year, the lowest since the 1.22 million in 2012. With Honda winding down operations at Swindon before its closure in 2021 and the future of the Vauxhall