NEW car registrations in the UK fell last year at the sharpest pace in the decade since the global financial crisis, as Brexit uncertainty weighed, the latest industry figures show.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said that UK new car registrations, at 2.37 million last year, were down by 6.8% on 2017. This was the steepest percentage fall since 2008 – the year in which the global financial crisis got under way in earnest.

New car registrations in Scotland in 2018, at 186,683, were down by 8.18 per cent on the previous year.

In December, UK new car registrations, at 143,772, were 5.41% lower than in the same month of 2017.

However, new car registrations in Scotland in December, at 10,077, were up by 1.26% on the same month of the previous year.

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Steve Turner, assistant general secretary for manufacturing at trade union Unite, said: “The UK car industry is a global leader and a source of highly skilled, well-paid jobs not only in major manufacturers but throughout the supply chain.

“All this is at risk of going into reverse, along with the hard work of Britain’s car workers, thanks to the Government’s botched handling of Brexit and continued economic uncertainty.”

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He added: “We need an end to Brexit uncertainty and for tariff-free frictionless access to Europe to secure the future of the UK’s car industry and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that rely on it.”

He also hit out at what he claimed was “the demonisation of diesel by Government ministers, despite the UK making some of the cleanest engines in the world”.

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SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: “A second year of substantial decline is a major concern, as falling consumer confidence, confusing fiscal and policy messages, and shortages due to regulatory changes have combined to create a highly turbulent market.”