"BAe has reached the end of the road with aircraft manufacture - we just don't want to pour more of our money into a bottomless pit"
We have already "invested" tens of millions into the F-35 in the belief that this will give us a chunk of the West's next major combat aircraft. BAe is to provide aft fuselage and empennages, horizontal and vertical tails, crew life support and escape systems, EW systems, fuel system, and Flight Control Software. So unless the US cancels the entire programme, BAe will remain in the business of aircraft manufacture for some time.
The UK still aims to buy the F-35C once we spend the money to alter the new carrier(s) for the PM's favoured "cats and traps".