THOUSANDS of manufacturing jobs are at risk from Brexit, MP Liz Saville Roberts has warned.

The Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP joined parliamentary leaders of the SNP, Green Party and Liberal Democrats to issue a warning that the manufacturing industry faces an ‘existential threat’ as a result of the UK’s departure of the EU.

The warning follows a meeting of the Cross-party Opposition Leaders Group with Aluminium Federation CEO Tom Jones and the director gneral of industry group UK Steel Gareth Stace.

The Labour party refuse to take part in the group, which was set-up as a forum to discuss Brexit in early 2018.

Thousands of jobs in already economically vulnerable areas are at risk from a badly handled Brexit, the party leaders were told.

Mrs Saville Roberts said: “Westminster’s historic focus on the south east of England has already left our manufacturing sector vulnerable.

“With an extreme Brexit now being pursued, the backbone of our industrial economy faces an existential threat.

“From Port Talbot Steelworks to Airbus in Broughton, manufacturing employs thousands of Welsh workers.

“Workers who face uncertainty about their futures thanks to Westminster’s chaotic Brexit.

“Today we have heard from the industry themselves that the consensus between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn to pull us out of the European Single Market and Customs Union will cost thousands of jobs and risks irreparable damage to the Welsh economy and industrial communities across the UK.

“Labour and the Tories alike will be responsible for steelworkers’ P45s when the full effect of our exit from the EU hit home.”

The Green Party’s Caroline Lucas MP added: “The Government’s shambolic Brexit is a huge distraction from the very real problems people are facing across the country.

“It’s deeply worrying to hear that once reliable jobs in manufacturing could be at risk if we leave the EU – exacerbating the inequality that drove so many to vote for such a drastic change in the first place.

“With ministers doing nothing to address the division and discontentment behind the Leave vote, and with more grim details of life outside the EU coming to light, it’s clearer than ever that we need to give the people a final say.”