Rolls-Royce yesterday piled pressure on Andy Burnham to back its plans to re-enter the £1.6 trillion narrow-body jet engine market, or risk 40,000 jobs going abroad.

Chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic said talks with the Government over financial support for the project were progressing, but urged ministers to get on with making a decision.

He warned that the clock was ticking as Airbus and Boeing, the world’s two major aeroplane makers, are aiming to pick engines for their next generation of narrow-body jets in two years.

Speaking at the Farnborough Airshow, Erginbilgic said: ‘If you want economic growth, this will transform it, this will contribute significantly without any doubt. It will transform advanced manufacturing in the UK, and the supply chain.

‘Actually, we are not talking about lots of money in that context.’

With Airbus and Boeing expected to choose engines in two years, Erginbilgic said: ‘Once they [make] an engine decision, you are either in or you are out.’

He has not yet spoken to the new Prime Minister, but added: ‘Obviously it is one of the topics I would like to talk about.’

And he issued a wider warning about how higher taxes could hurt Britain. He said: ‘Sometimes you increase the tax, and then you say this much income will come. Tax doesn’t work that way because businesses have choices.

‘When you are making these big investments – billions – you obviously want some stability on the tax structure.’

FTSE 100-listed Rolls-Royce is looking to re-enter the market for engines for narrow-body aeroplanes – those used on shorter-haul flights – which is estimated to be worth £1.6 trillion globally.

It is in talks with the Government over financial support for the programme – which is at the heart of Labour’s focus on advanced manufacturing in its industrial strategy. 

The Daily Mail revealed in December that, without the taxpayer support it is seeking – in the hundreds of millions of pounds – Rolls-Royce would consider building the engines in Germany or the US, where it already has manufacturing sites and where energy is much cheaper.

Erginbilgic said: ‘From the country’s perspective, it is a very compelling proposition and we would like to do it in the UK because of our origin. Do we have other options? Yes, but that’s what we would like to do.’

He welcomed the appointment of former Defence Secretary John Healey as Chancellor ‘because he understands Rolls-Royce and our agenda and how much we contribute to the country’.