Companies will abandon investment and job creation in the UK unless the British Government clearly sets out its position on how the country will leave the trading bloc, according to the boss of an influential industry trade body.

Terry Scuoler, chief executive of engineering and manufacturing group EEF, will issue the alert later on Tuesday in a speech setting out a vision of the future of the EU.

Mr Scuoler, who is also the chairman of CEEMET, EEF’s Europe-wide equivalent and which represents 200,000 manufacturing, engineering and technology-based businesses across 23 nations collectively supporting 35m jobs, will say there is a “tipping point” for industry well before the March 2019 deadline when Britain quits the EU as a consequence of invoking Article 50 – the piece of legislation setting out the process for withdrawing from the EU.

“UK businesses need to know soon what arrangements will be in place after March 2019, to be able to plan, make investment decisions and have confidence that an orderly and carefully managed approach to Brexit is under way,” Mr Scuoler will say.