220,000 jobs at risk from Brexit, People’s Vote campaigners claim

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More than 200,000 jobs could be at risk from Brexit, according to a pro-EU campaign group.

New analysis by the People’s Vote campaign has found that 220,000 jobs are at risk in both the private and public sectors.

The figures suggest that worst affected the industries would be manufacturing, where 31,000 jobs are at risk, administrative and support services, and professional, scientific and technical professions.

Affected industries include manufacturing, which would face £40m in extra costs per year, the chemicals sector, which would face £51m in extra costs per year, and the machinery and transport industry which would face £80m in extra costs per year.

The news comes with just 200 days to go until the UK leaves the EU in March.

Former shadow minister for industrial relations Stephen Doughty MP said: “The myth that there can be a jobs-first Brexit is now dead.

“The choice for trade unionists is the fire of Theresa May’s Brexit or the frying pan of Jacob Rees Mogg’s Brexit.

“Both will be bad news for working families, both will mean job losses, cuts in hours worked and wages earned, and both will mean years more of damaging austerity for public services.

 “Job losses and cuts would only be the start.

“An attack on social and environmental protections would soon follow – not least because the Brextremists would use the excuse of the economic shock of Brexit as cover to demand that the UK be turned into an offshore destination for hot money and investors anxious to avoid environmental laws, paying tax, and decent wages or holiday pay.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: "Brexit is unfolding in the most chaotic fashion possible. This is not at all what the Leave campaign promised.

"Now that the facts of Brexit are becoming clearer, it's time for Richard Leonard and Nicola Sturgeon to get their parties off the fence.

"We cannot let Brexit end up as a hard right stitch up. We need a People's Vote and the chance to exit from Brexit."