Honda has warned that its Swindon car plant would not receive further significant investment because Britain’s refusal to join the euro has created too much currency uncertainty. Financial Times. The Independent

Takeo Fukui, president of Honda, said it would not expand the capacity of the plant until currency risk was removed. Nevertheless he said the Japanese car maker had no plans to shut the UK plant, which supplies the European market.

Honda will in future also be more able to supply continental European from its expanding factory in Turkey.

On past investment in Swindon, Fukui said: 'We made a mistake. We thought the UK was in Europe but its reluctance to join the euro is a big problem.'