Airbus bosses are furious after the Government spurred them to publish a dire forecast of the impact of Brexit before handing a prize £2bn RAF contract to US rival Boeing without a competition.

The Telegraph has learnt that last month’s bombshell warning from Airbus that it could be forced to leave the UK came after discussions with senior Remainer ministers preparing for the Chequers summit.

Theresa May used the summit to impose on the Cabinet a vision of Brexit that would keep Britain in the single market for goods by maintaining close customs ties with Brussels, triggering a wave of Brexiteer resignations and claims from Donald Trump, the US president that the country was in “turmoil”.

Sources close to Airbus said the company decided to warn about the future of as many as 15,000 of its UK employees and 110,000 in its supply chain after discussions with the Government.

It is understood the ministers argued that industry should speak out on the highly contentious issue and aimed to create what insiders described as “room for manoeuvre” at Chequers.

The warning from Airbus allowed Mrs May and her officials to present to the Cabinet a more robust assessment of business disruption a hard or no-deal Brexit could cause and argue for Britain to make more concessions to the EU.