Rolls-Royce has become the latest industry giant to back the Remain campaign, after urging its employees to vote to stay in the European Union at next weeks referendum.
Warren East, the engineering giants chief executive, warned that leaving the 28-country bloc would give Rolls-Royces American rivals a head start in the market, adding a £65m ($92.1m, €82.2m) investment plan could be put at risk.
It is like we are running a multi-lap race and with each lap we are giving the competitors a 10-yard head start, he said.
East stressed that GE and Pratt and Whitney, its main US-based competitors, would not suffer from a pause in investment, which he fears would instead weigh on UK firms following a Brexit.
Its all about uncertainty and our position in Europe, he told Dominic OConnell on BBCs Today Programme.
We have a very interconnected operation around Europe [...] Were making investment decisions all the time about where to place various parts of our operation [...] and uncertainty created by Brexit puts a lot of those decisions on hold, and that pause is something that our US competitors dont have to cope with.
Britains main engineering company, which accounts for £1 in every £50 of British exports, Rolls-Royce has a very strong relationship with Europe, where it employs 37,000 people – three quarters of its total workforce.
The group, which has significant presence in Derby, Germany, the US and Singapore, is in the middle of an expansion plan aimed at doubling the number of aero engines produced each year from the current 400.
Rolls-Royces message comes only a few days after telecoms giant BT threw its weight behind the Remain campaign, indicating it wanted Britain to remain within a reformed EU.
