Microsoft Corp. has published a statement reaffirming its commitment to the United Kingdom, following comments from a senior manager about the impact that potential post-Brexit hardware import tariffs might have on its plans for investing in data centers in the country.

The statement came in response to a number of misleading stories suggesting that Microsoft might pull out some of its businesses from the U.K. Those reports were based on comments made by Owen Larter, Microsoft’s U.K. government affairs manager. During a webinar on Channel 9, a Microsoft-owned website that hosts technical discussions on a range of topics related to the company, Larter said that any new tariffs on data center hardware imports from overseas might cause the company to revise its U.K. construction plans.

But Larter was speaking about a hypothetical scenario and did not make any definitive statements about the company’s plans. The U.K. government most likely will have to negotiate new international trade deals once it leaves the European Union, but it won’t do so until it formerly invokes Article 50 and begins the official Brexit process.

Microsoft’s statement seems to be an attempt to reassure its U.K. customers that it intends to keep serving them no matter what happens after Brexit. “The comments reported today by a Microsoft employee were not reflective of the company’s view,” the company said in a statement. “As we have said both before and after the EU referendum vote, Microsoft’s commitment to the UK is unchanged…. Those customers in our UK data centres should continue to rely on Microsoft’s significant investment plans there.”

The webinar in which Larter appeared, titled “What Brexit Means for Tech”, has since been removed from the Channel 9 website.

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