Speaking at the company’s briefing before the Farnborough air show, Enders said: “The sun is shining brightly on the UK, the English team is progressing towards the final, the RAF is preparing to celebrate its centenary and HMG still has no clue, no consensus on how to execute Brexit without severe harm.”

His comments come as the cabinet meets at Chequers to thrash out disagreements within the government over the Brexit deal that the prime minister will propose to Brussels.

Enders said uncertainty over Brexit was “very discomforting” and said it was the company’s duty to its shareholders to speak up about the issue.

“Let’s see what comes out of Chequers: white smoke, black smoke or no smoke,” he added.

Airbus has been joined this week by Jaguar Land Rover , the UK’s largest carmaker, and Rolls-Royce, in voicing concern about the dangers of a hard Brexit.

Jaguar Land Rover has said a bad Brexit deal would force it to reconsider £80bn of investment planned for the UK, putting 40,000 jobs at risk.

The engineer Rolls-Royce said on Thursday it had drawn up contingency plans to move design approval out of the UK to German because of uncertainty about the shape of Brexit.

Rob Davies