JCB, one of the UK’s biggest manufacturers, has decided to leave the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) over the business lobby group’s anti-Brexit stance.
The maker of construction equipment, which exports to 150 countries, is understood to have told the CBI in the summer, shortly after the Brexit vote, that it would not be continuing its membership.
The JCB chairman, Lord Bamford, campaigned for the leave camp and wrote in June to his company’s 6,500 employees in the UK arguing he was “very confident that we can stand on our own two feet”.
The CBI was among the most vocal opponents to Brexit in the run-up to the 23 June referendum, warning that leaving the EU would dent the economy and knock living standards. It published an analysis in March claiming that Brexit could lead to almost a million job losses and leave the average household £3,700 worse off by 2020.
Responding to news that JCB was parting ways with the business group, which was first reported by Sky News, a CBI spokesman said: “It’s always a shame to see any member leave the CBI, but we recognise that businesses have competing priorities and we respect that.”
The CBI has now adopted a stance of urging the government to go for a Brexit deal that allows continued easy access to the European single market. The group’s director general, Carolyn Fairbairn, has said Theresa May’s lurch to a hard Brexit stance risks destroying Britain’s hopes of remaining an open economy.
A spokesman for JCB said: “I can confirm that JCB is ending its membership of the CBI.”
