Conservative Party urged to avoid no-deal Brexit by CBI
A major UK business lobby group has warned Tory MPs to avoid hurting British companies by leaving the EU without a deal as hard Brexit candidates look to succeed Theresa May.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), a leading business lobby group, penned an open letter to all Conservative Party leadership candidates on Friday urging them to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
In the letter drafted by CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn she explained that businesses both large and small are adamant that leaving the EU in an orderly manner is the ‘best way forward’.
‘The vast majority of firms can never be prepared for no-deal, particularly our SME members who cannot afford complex and costly contingency plans,’ Fairbairn added.
No-deal Brexit will do untold damage to British businesses
Bailing out of the EU without a deal would do ‘severe’ damage to British businesses and would cause ‘short-term disruption’ and long-term harm to their competitiveness, according to the CBI.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, the CBI chief said that a no-deal Brexit shouldn’t even be considered an option.
‘How can you be prepared for £20bn of increased customs costs? How can be you prepared for tariffs rising overnight? 150,000 businesses with no systems in place to do deal with this.
‘This is not a responsible strategy for a government to have,’ Fairbairn added.
No-deal Brexit must be Plan B
As it stands, there are 12 MPs vying to leader the Conservatives Party. Earlier this week on of the candidates, Esther McVey wrote in a column for the Daily Telegraph how Britain must ‘actively embrace leaving the EU without a deal.
Meanwhile, the frontrunner, Boris Johnson, made it clear that he intends renegotiate the terms of May’s withdrawal agreement with the EU, despite officials in Brussels repeatedly stating they have no interest in redrafting the Brexit deal already on the table.
‘I don't think any of the leadership candidates are advocating no deal as their plan A,’ Co-Founder of Economists for Brexit Gerard Lyons said in an interview with the BBC.
‘One has to have a plan B. No deal, whether we like it or not, has to be plan B’
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