Greg Clark has hit back against anti-business comments by his cabinet colleagues, insisting companies such as Airbus are “entitled to be listened to with respect” on Brexit.

The business secretary was challenged in the House of Commons on Monday by Labour MP Mark Tami, after Jeremy Hunt dismissed warnings by manufacturer Airbus about the consequences of a no-deal Brexit as “completely inappropriate”.

Clark struck a different tone, highlighting the importance of the aerospace sector to the UK economy. He described it as “one of the UK’s greatest manufacturing strengths, employing directly and through its supply chains around 300,000 people in the UK in high-skilled jobs with an average salary of £41,000”.

He said: “Any company and any industry that supports the livelihood of so many working people in this country is entitled to be listened to with respect.”

Hunt was responding to a risk assessment, published by Airbus last week, which suggested the firm could move manufacturing abroad if the government fails to secure a Brexit deal. His outspoken dismissal of Airbus’s concerns was widely regarded as a signal that he is keen to win the backing of Brexiters for a potential future leadership bid.

Liam Fox, the trade secretary, also brushed off Airbus’s warning, saying the EU would be hit just as hard as Britain by a no-deal Brexit. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary was reportedly overheard saying to the Belgian EU ambassador: “Fuck business.”

Clark has allied with the chancellor, Philip Hammond, in Theresa May’s deeply divided cabinet, to push for the closest possible future relationship with the EU after Brexit.



May has summoned her ministers for a second awayday at Chequers next month, as she seeks to broker a consensus over a series of fraught issues, including Britain’s future customs relations with the EU27.

Clark has positioned himself as a solidly pro-business voice in the debate. He used a speech to the Lord Mayor’s dinner in March to praise businesses for putting, “evidence before ideology” and basing their opinion on “the actual experience of trading with Europe” rather than “an abstract exercise in which you take decisions over the lives of people in imagined worlds”.

On Monday, he underlined the fact that Airbus’s warning chimed with the message from other firms in the sector, and said the government was seeking a deal that would avoid the firm’s dire warnings coming to pass.

“The government has been clear that we are determined to secure a deal with the EU that meets the needs of our aerospace firms, and the thousands of people whose livelihoods dependent on them – in particular, that products made in the UK can be approved for use across Europe; that there must be no tariffs or any unnecessary friction in the trade between the UK and the EU; that skilled employees will be able to work across the multiple sites of an integrated operation.”

Pro-EU Conservatives hope more businesses will speak up about the risks of a hard Brexit, as the debate rages in cabinet.