Speaking to Welsh business leaders last week, the president of Airbus Group UK warned of job losses and “huge” economic risks if the British people vote to leave the European Union in a referendum that is currently scheduled to take place in 2017.

Paul Kahn (pictured right) said that a decision to withdraw from the EU would raise doubts about Airbus’s long-term future investments in the UK, and that senior executives of the global group were “deeply concerned by the possibility of Britain leaving the EU”.

He said he was willing to “acknowledge that “the EU is bureaucratic”, but added that doing business with Europe would be far more difficult if Britain voted to leave. He told the Welsh audience that the long lead times needed to build up the skills to support advanced manufacturing meant that aerospace jobs would be slow to leave the UK, but they could be “even slower to return” if companies choose to send their future investment elsewhere.

The Airbus chief delivered his speech on the same day that the president of the CBI called on employers to “turn up the volume” on the dangers of a EU exit. Sir Mike Rake urged CBI members to talk more about the benefits of EU membership. He said: “The time has come to speak out clearly — and in a language which people can understand.

Business must be crystal-clear that EU membership is in our national interest.” However, he added that there is “a need for significant reform of the European project. Reform will not happen overnight but, by working with our allies on an ambitious yet achievable agenda, we can make it a reality. So we support the Prime Minister’s drive for a more competitive EU, and the new Government can count on the support of business to make this happen.”

Sir Mike’s comments came just days after JCB argued that the UK should leave the EU if the Government fails to negotiate reforms with Brussels. Graeme MacDonald (pictured left), chief executive of the Staffordshire-based excavator maker, said that leaving the EU would not make “a blind bit of difference” to trading with Europe.

“There has been far too much scaremongering about things like jobs. I don’t think it’s in anyone’s interest to stop trade. I don’t think we or Brussels will put up trade barriers.”

Speaking to The Financial Times, EEF chief executive Terry Scuoler said he was “slightly puzzled and mildly surprised” by Mr MacDonald’s comments. “I think some of the economic arguments are lost here — the open market of 500 million people, the huge opportunity for trade deals. We have touched base with hundreds — if not thousands, of manufacturers around the country — and our evidence is that the majority want to stay in the EU.”