Jaguar Land Rover to axe 500 UK management jobs as Trump tariffs fallout dents sales
The British luxury carmaker said about 1.5% of its staff in the UK would be affected by the cuts as part of a voluntary redundancy round for managers. JLR, which is owned by India's Tata Motors, employs 33,000 people in the UK.
The car manufacturer reported a 15.1% drop in sales in the three months to June after a temporary pause in exports to the US.
JLR stopped shipments to the US in April after Trump imposed a 25% duty on all foreign-made vehicles, before resuming them in May. The country accounts for more than a quarter of JLR's sales.
Trump and Keir Starmer have agreed a trade deal that allows the UK to export 100,000 cars a year to the US at a 10% tariff, reduced from the 27.5% levy imposed on other countries.
Britain's ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, said shortly after the deal was agreed that it had immediately prevented job losses at JLR's factory in the West Midlands. JLR's chief executive, Adrian Mardell, said the deal would help to sustain 250,000 jobs across the car industry.
Mandelson told CNN at the time: 'This deal has saved those jobs … That's a pretty big achievement in my view, and I'm very pleased that the president has signed it.'
Starmer spoke to Trump while visiting JLR's Solihull factory in May as he announced a trade deal with the US.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for JLRthe carmaker said: 'JLR regularly offers eligible employees voluntary redundancy programmes. Through this limited UK VR programme for managers, JLR is aligning its leadership workforce for the business's current and future needs.
'We are grateful to the government for delivering at speed the new UK-US trade deal, which gives us the confidence to invest £3.5bn per annum to realise our strategy, which is delivering.'
British businesses have reported that they are under pressure from the increase in employer national insurance contributions. The official unemployment rate rose to 4.7% in the three months to May, up 0.1% from April.
The shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith, said Jaguar's plans to cut jobs was 'a huge personal embarrassment for Keir Starmer'.
'Two months ago, the prime minister looked workers at JLR in the eye and promised them he would protect their jobs – now 500 are to go,' he told the Telegraph.
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'This government isn't serious about business – the jobs tax, the union red tape and their net zero obsession. It's no wonder unemployment is rising.'
Downing Street said Jaguar's plan to cut jobs in the UK was disappointing.
A spokesperson for No 10 said: 'We are working closely with JLR. We're backing British carmakers through our plan for change, including £2.5bn over the next decade to support the shift to electric vehicles, more flexibility in the Zev [zero emission vehicle] mandate and new incentives like the electric car grant and those trade deals such as those with the US and India will cut tariffs and open up new export opportunities for UK manufacturers.
'So whilst this news is disappointing, we're taking real action to support jobs and investment in the long term.'
Jaguar told its investors in June that, as a result of tariff uncertainty, it was lowering its forecast for margins on underlying profits, measured by earnings before interest and taxes, to between 5% and 7% this year, from 10% previously estimated. The company achieved a profit margin of 8.5% in the year to 31 March.
The company reported a 12.2% drop in wholesale sales in North America. Sales in the UK also fell 25.5% in its second quarter after the planned wind-down of older Jaguar models. The company stopped selling new cars in the UK late last year as part of its shift towards new electric models, which are expected to hit the market in 2026.
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