Currently reading: EU referendum: Nissan to sue Vote Leave over Brexit flyer

Japanese car maker distances itself from Vote Leave campaign; latest statement emphasises its pro-EU stance

Nissan will take legal action against Britain’s Vote Leave campaign after its logo was used in a leaflet promoting Brexit ahead of Thursday’s EU referendum.

Brexit: what do the car makers think?

The Japanese car maker has long held a pro-EU stance and believes that the use of its logo alongside a “misleading” statement could taint its image.

Nissan has confirmed that it will expand production at its Sunderland production site, despite Brexit concerns

The statement in question says: “Major employers have all said they’ll stay in the UK whatever the result of the referendum” and displays Nissan’s logo along with the likes of Vauxhall and Unilever beside it.

The car maker is now pursuing legal action against the campaign, requesting that its name and logo be removed from any further Vote Leave promotions.

In a statement released earlier this year, Nissan’s chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn said: “Our preference as a business is, of course, that the UK stays within Europe; it makes the most sense for jobs, trade and costs. For us, a position of stability is more positive than a collection of unknowns.”

Nissan employs 8000 people in the UK and a further 32,000 indirectly through its supply chain. It is one of several big players in the automotive industry that have reiterated their views on the importance of remaining in Europe in the past few days.

Pro-Brexit campaigners have responded by saying that the UK's expertise in car manufacturing would ensure that the industry would stay strong if the UK were to leave the EU.

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The Apprentice 22 June 2016

I had a leaflet through the

I had a leaflet through the door a while back made by the Remain campaign. It featured an apparent senior police chief, subtitled ex head of police commissioners federation, shown in dress uniform saying we would be safer in the EU. It was a lie, Sir whatever was retired, in no position to represent the police or wear uniform - it was simply one pensioners opinion but it was made to look official. I raised it with various authorities and the answer was the same. In the case of political publications there is no law requiring the truth! - Let it go Nissan, you might even find it earns you more respect!
michael knight 22 June 2016

Ronald McDonald

[quote=The Apprentice Let it go Nissan, you might even find it earns you more respect![/quote]
There speaks the balanced voice of reason. So one lie you've ad-hocced means we should encourage all lies? You clown.
BenC30 22 June 2016

Nissan as bad as Amazon and Starbucks?

Is Nissan still selling all of their new cars in the UK via an office in Switzerland to avoid paying UK corporation tax? The sums lost to the Treasury are mind-boggling. Google, based for tax purposes in Dublin, earned £11 billion from Britain between 2006 and 2011, but paid only £10 million in tax. Starbucks, based in Holland, in 2011 earned £395 million in the UK, but paid only £6 million in tax. Amazon, based in Luxembourg, had UK sales of £3.35 billion in 2011 but paid only £1.8 million in tax. Equally clever at avoiding UK tax are our largely foreign-owned water companies, such as Thames, which in 2011 made a £550  million profit and paid no tax at all. Ever longer grows the list of leading companies avoiding UK tax in this way, from Apple and Vodafone to BHS and Pizza Express – so that estimates of what the Treasury is losing are as much as £120 billion a year, equal to a fifth of the Government’s entire income. Astonishingly, however, entirely missing from all the outrage is the simple explanation of how and why this racket has come into being. It all stems from the “four freedoms” laid down in the founding treaty of the European Union, especially the freedoms of “capital” and “establishment”, which entitle firms to move all their income to the country where they want their tax base to be, to give them the smallest tax liability. This has completely destroyed the sovereign right of national governments to levy tax in a country where income is earned. Google, Amazon, Apple and the rest can thus quite legally channel all their earnings wherever tax rates are lowest. In 1992, a further massive loophole was opened up by the Maastricht Treaty, which, in preparation for the single currency, extended the “freedom of capital” to countries outside the EU, including tax havens such as the Cayman Islands or Jersey, with even lower tax rates. This is how, for instance, our water companies manage to pay so little tax, despite making profits averaging at 30 per cent a year. They have also learnt the cleverest trick of all, which is to borrow huge sums from their tax-haven-based owners, at artificially high rates of interest, which can then be offset as a business expense against their profits, shrinking their tax liability still further. Greedy Ghosn will probably claim Nissan are doing Britain a favour by employing people here and the British taxpayer should continue subsidising it.
Bolida 21 June 2016

Lies & more lies

Utterly despicable that the Leave campaign has blatantly lied using company logos . These companies including Unilever , Toyota and Nissan have never pledged their support.