‘Brexit Is Working!’: Farage Hails New Jobs with Nissan Investment, ‘Remoaners Got It Wrong Again’

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson gives a thumbs up as he tours Japanese auto giant N
JEFF J MITCHELL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Nigel Farage has declared that “Brexit is working” after Nissan announced plans to update its Sunderland factory for building electric cars, in a venture that could create 6,000 new jobs.

On Wednesday, Nissan and partner Envision AESC announced a £1 billion ($1.4bn) investment in England’s Sunderland plant, which will see the factory build the Japanese automobile manufacturer’s next-generation electric car. Envision AESC will also be building a gigafactory — a factory specialising in batteries for electric vehicles. The announcement comes in part thanks to the British government, now unshackled from EU rules, to offer incentives for businesses to operate in the UK.

Creating more than 6,000 new jobs for the factory itself and suppliers, Nissan will be spending around £423 million to produce a new crossover vehicle at the north-east England plant, which already builds the Qashqai and the electric Leaf. Envision AESC will spend £450 million to build the gigafactory next door.

Reacting to the announcement, Nigel Farage, hosting Sunday’s Political Correction on GB News, said it meant that “Brexit is working” and that “the Remoaners got it wrong again”.

Mr Farage said: “Sunderland holds a very, very special place in Brexiteers’ hearts. I remember going back to the late 1990s and the big national debate, and it always was that if Britain doesn’t join the Euro [currency], Nissan will close down in Sunderland. If we dared to vote for Brexit, there’s no question: Nissan will leave Sunderland. If it’s a no-deal Brexit, no question: Nissan will leave Sunderland.”

Reflecting on how, despite the scare stories during decades of Project Fear, the people of Sunderland voted to back leaving the EU on June 23rd, 2016, “The people of Sunderland have been rewarded. The nay-sayers, the Remainers, the Remoaners, have got it wrong once again.”

Nissan’s position on the UK’s independence from the EU has taken a 180-degree turn in recent years, with the company’s then-boss Carlos Ghosn saying in 2013 that if the UK left the bloc, Nissan would “reconsider” its presence in the UK, with the company saying in 2019 that the plant’s future would be “unsustainable” in a clean-break, no-deal Brexit.

However, after the UK finally left all of the EU’s institutions in January 2021, Britain’s managing director of Nissan, Andrew Humberstone, said early that month he was “satisfied” with the UK-EU trade agreement and despite the effects of the coronavirus lockdown, recommitted the company to build cars at the Sunderland factory.

Later that month, Nissan’s Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta had said that Brexit “is a positive”, saying it would allow the company to “redefine the auto industry in the UK” and that in some cases, “our competitiveness is improved”.

Speaking at the plant on Thursday, Mr Gupta said Brexit was an “opportunity” and that “this project is the demonstration of the renaissance of the British car industry.”

Business secretary Kwasi Kwartens is believed to be discussing opening other gigafactories with at least six other companies, including one to serve British-Indian company Jaguar Land Rover.

The news is the latest to counter Project Fear claims that if the UK left the EU, it would tip the country’s economy into recession, leave Britons out of work, and result in a “punishment budget” — predictions later shown to be “very flawed and very partisan” by the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Business Research.

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