The translation industry could be decimated by Brexit, the Cambridge MP will warn as he visits a leading Cambridge translation company.

Alpha has been a Cambridge success story since 1978 when it was founded by language graduate Isabelle Weiss. Today it boasts two hundred staff in Cambridge and five hundred globally and services blue chip clients including PayPal and Microsoft.

However Ms Weiss says that it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire qualified staff noting that when she offered a role to a German citizen he said “crazy to move from Hamburg to Cambridge”. She is also concerned that new immigration rules could make it impossible to hire staff quickly enough to fulfil their clients’ requirements. She warns: “We might need to consider relocating to an EU country.”

Daniel Zeichner MP said: “Alpha is a Cambridge success story but its reason for being based here in our city is historic. Like so many industries the British translation industry risks being decimated. It is high time the Government put an end to this Brexit uncertainty that is having such a detrimental effect on the economy. If global businesses take the difficult decision to move, they will be very hard to attract back.”