UK manufacturers shed staff at the fastest monthly pace for six years in February, as their optimism about future output dropped sharply and they stockpiled inputs at a record rate ahead of Brexit, a survey shows.

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The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply’s survey shows growth of overall manufacturing activity slowed in February to its weakest pace in four months and its second-poorest rate since the immediate aftermath of the Brexit referendum.

Its purchasing managers’ index for UK manufacturing, which measures changes in output, new orders, employment, suppliers’ delivery times and stocks of goods purchased, fell from a downwardly revised 52.6 in January to 52 last month on a seasonally adjusted basis. While above the level of 50 deemed to separate expansion from contraction, the index is at its second-lowest level since July 2016. UK manufacturers’ optimism about the prospects for growth in activity on a 12-month time horizon has fallen to its weakest since records for this survey question began in 2012.

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Rob Dobson, director at survey compiler IHS Markit, said: “With Brexit day looming, UK manufacturers continued to implement plans to mitigate potential disruptions. Stockpiling of both inputs and finished products remained the order of the day, with growth in the former hitting a fresh record high.”

CIPS director Duncan Brock said: “The sector continues to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as the harsh realities of Brexit uncertainty, challenges in the global economy and a weak pound affected confidence, jobs and overall activity.

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“Firms said they were stockpiling raw materials and finished goods to keep their businesses viable in the coming months. Stocks of purchases also rose at the fastest rate since the survey started in 1992 as the fear of customs delays, tariffs and a ‘no-deal’ scenario felt real for many.”