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takyon writes:

Honda Confirms Plan to Leave Britain as Brexit Looms

The Japanese automaker Honda has become the latest business to make plans to leave Britain as global forces reshape the car industry and the country prepares to exit the European Union.

Honda will close its plant in Swindon, England, which employs 3,500 workers, by 2021, it confirmed on Tuesday. The factory, which produces about 150,000 cars a year, will close once its current line of Civic cars comes to an end.

"In light of the unprecedented changes that are affecting our industry, it is vital that we accelerate our electrification strategy and restructure our global operations accordingly," Katsushi Inoue, the chief officer for European operations, said in a statement.

The decision was a "devastating decision for Swindon and the U.K.," Greg Clark, Britain's business secretary, said in a statement. "The news is a particularly bitter blow to the thousands of skilled and dedicated staff who work at the factory, their families and all of those employed in the supply chain," Mr. Clark said, adding that he would convene a "task force" to keep the employees in work.

Also at CNN.

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