Category Archives: Brexit

Staff in the U.K. Foreign Office were crying and in a state of mourning following the Brexit vote, the offices former chief Simon McDonald has revealed.

During an interview for the BBCs documentary series State of Chaos, McDonald said he saw people in tears and in shock the morning after the 2016 referendum, and decided to tell his ministers he had voted to remain in the European Union.

On this solitary occasion I decided to tell my colleagues and therefore let ministers know that I voted to remain in the European Union, McDonald said.

Under the civil service code, officials are expected to maintain impartiality and not share their own political preferences with ministers. But McDonald, who served as top civil servant of the office from 2015 to 2020, said he felt ministers likely knew his vote anyway, so decided to embrace it.

He also wanted to convey a message to a group of people, most of whom I felt had voted to remain in the EU, that their personal feelings were beside the point.

Still, McDonalds confession is bound to anger Brexiteers. McDonald himself said he knew the Foreign Office board was not entirely comfortable that he had revealed his vote, and the former deputy Cabinet secretary, Helen MacNamara, told the BBC she doesnt know why that would be a good or helpful thing.

The interview is part of the new episode of State of Chaos, a three-part series that follows the tumultuous events in the British government from 2016 to 2022.

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Remainer UK civil servants were in tears over Brexit, top official says - POLITICO Europe

Mark Carney was governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020.

Mark Carney was governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020.

Mark Carney has delivered a stunning takedown of Brexit and Liz Trusss government.

The former Bank of England governor accused those who backed quitting the European Union of wanting to tear down the future.

And he said Trusss disastrous mini-Budget, in which she planned to borrow billions of pounds to slash taxes for the rich, of creating Argentina on the Channel in reference to that countrys troubled economy.

Speaking at a summit in Montreal also attended by Labour leader Keir Starmer, Carney said: For years, the rallying cry of the Brexiteers was broken Britain. But their solution - to take back control - ended up code for tear down the future.

He went on: When politicians proclaim that our great democracies are broken, its not because they want to fix them, its because they want a licence to demolish.

Its a model, and its a repeated model, that uses a constraint to starve the beast of government in the misguided view that slashing leads to growing.

Carney, who led the Bank of England from 2013 until 2020, added: When Brexiteers tried to create Singapore on the Thames, the Truss government instead delivered Argentina on the Channel - and that was a year ago.

Those with little experience in the private sector - lifelong politicians masquerading as free marketeers - grossly under-value the importance of mission, of institutions, and of discipline to a strong economy.

And the bad news is that while these tactics never work economically, they can work politically. Brexit happened, Donald Trump was elected. So we cant dismiss the impact of anger, but we must resist its power.

Truss was eventually forced to resign as prime minister after just 49 days in office.

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She has since defended her plans to slash taxes to boost growth, insisting that she was the victim of the powerful economic establishment.

It also emerged last week that she is writing a book on how to save the west.

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Mark Carney Has Delivered A Stunning Takedown Of Brexit And Liz Truss - Yahoo News Canada

1. More Brits than ever say Brexit was wrong choice: YouGov survey  Reuters UK
2. More Brits than ever say Brexit was wrong choice: YouGov survey  EURACTIV
3. Brexit was wrong, say 57% of British voters  The Economist

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More Brits than ever say Brexit was wrong choice: YouGov survey - Reuters UK

1. Britain's fishing industry in line for post-Brexit boost following the end of EU red tape  Daily Mail
2. Brexit fishing win as new measures unveiled in 'clear departure' from hated EU policy  Express
3. 'Independent trading nation': UK joins Pacific trading bloc, as post-Brexit fisheries reform gets underway  BusinessGreen

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Britain's fishing industry in line for post-Brexit boost following the end of EU red tape - Daily Mail

Opinion The commercial departments of Brexit-supporting newspapers know the damage being caused to the UK economy, and newspaper advertising revenues, by Brexit. Their editorial colleagues continue to support it anyway.

The page lead in last weeks Daily Express was dramatic and right up their street. The headline read: Brexit victory as 6bn car engine deal proves leaving the EU hasnt alienated business.

Britain had scored a major Brexit victory as a new global company formed by the merger of Renault and Geely of China has decided to base itself in the UK.

The new company would invest 6bn to develop low-emission, hybrid and electric engines. More than 19,000 would be employed in 17 manufacturing plants and five research and development centres.

A Brexit victory indeed.

Former International Trade Secretary Liam Fox was ecstatic and commented: Another international vote of confidence in the UK as Renault and Geely invest 6bn in a new HQ here. [] It comes on top of the 17bn investment from Japan. Lets hear more good news.

Former Tory leadership candidate Penny Mordaunt and business minister Jesse Norman waxed lyrical in a similar vein.

There is only one small problem with this deal, which the Daily Express unaccountably failed to mention: none of the 17 engine plants or five R&D centres spread across three continents are in the UK.

The only British connection is that a small corporate headquarters will be based in London to set strategy and pull together the threads of plants scattered across the globe. The new company did not say how many jobs will be based in London, but we can be sure the number of office jobs will be relatively small, and equally sure that only the tiniest fraction of the 6bn investment will be coming to the UK.

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The Daily Express did not actually specifically say that all the 17 plants and five research centres would be based in the UK or that all of the 6bn and 19,000 jobs would be based here. It was however heavily implied so heavily implied that the coverage was downright misleading, well on the way to deceiving its readers.

It was enough to fool an experienced trade politician such as Liam Fox, and many of the aging, Brexit-supporting readers of the Daily Express would have been duped by the 6bn Brexit victory.

Hardly the greatest journalism, but alas all too common from the right-wing Brexit-supporting press which plays down the bad news about the impact of Brexit of which there is no shortage and hails minor deals as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

For example, the free trade agreement last year between the UK and New Zealand was portrayed as a triumph even though British farmers were hung out to dry to get a deal any deal.

Much less, coverage for the EU reaching a much better deal with New Zealand than the UK managed and the EU held out to protect its farmers.

Yet anything that the Daily Express can do, the Sunday Express can do better much better.

Whereas the Daily Express could manage only a mere 6bn Brexit boost, the Sunday soared away with a 12tn Brexit Trade Boost for Britain as a result of joining the 11-nation Indo-Pacific trade bloc (CPTPP).

Wow, 12tn is one serious trade boost.

Business secretary Kemi Badenoch said the agreement placed the UK at the top table of the Indo-Pacific group and greeted the step as the clearest demonstration yet of our new found freedoms outside the EU.

As you might have guessed by now, there are a few problems with this extravagant example of pro-Brexit journalism.

The UK has already got trade agreements with no less than 10 of the 11 CPTPP countries, including the aforementioned member, New Zealand. The Indo-Pacific group may have a population of 500 million in a fast-growing part of the world economy, but the UK decided to turn its back on a much richer, if more mature, 500 million market in Europe 600 million if you add in the EUs subsequent trade deal with Japan.

The 12tn Brexit Trade Boost is, of course, also total nonsense. The Sunday Express has simply added together the GDPs of all 11 countries including Japan, Canada and Australia, and of course the number has nothing whatsoever to do with trade.

In fact, there is some dispute about what the impact on trade will be. According to one estimate it would add 0.08% to the UKs GDP over 10 years but that is almost certainly an underestimate based on out-of-date numbers.

The BBC forecast of less than 1% is more realistic, yet the Corporation was once again accused of bias by the Daily Mail for setting the deal in a totally realistic context.

If the near-1% figure turns out to be even close to accurate it would compare badly with figures produced by the Centre For European Reform on what Brexit has cost the UK.

John Springford, deputy director of the Centre, says its model, which has been accurate so far, estimates that Brexit had cost the UK economy 5.5% of GDP growth up to the end of the second quarter of 2022.

You would never find numbers like that in either the Daily Express, the Sunday Express or the Daily Mail or for that matter The Sun.

Mail Metro sales chief: Brexit definitely having an effect on adspend

The Daily and Sunday Express coverage is an affront to responsible journalism and should be an embarrassment to Reach, the company that owns both papers.

Reach may allow the editors of its various publications, which includes the Daily Mirror, the editorial freedom to address the very different political proclivities of its newspapers. But by pumping out such embarrassing rubbish, Reach faces the serious danger of corporate reputational damage by allowing its journalism to practice deception on its readers and indeed British society.

All those involved in such murky journalism should have a care about the latest polling from YouGov suggesting that only 31% of the population now want to remain outside the EU.

And for good measure the UK is still losing trade with the EU. In May, year-on-year trade between the UK and Ireland fell by 34% while Irish trade the other way increased by 19%.

I dont suppose Express readers will get to hear about that either.

The irony is that the commercial departments of the Brexit-supporting newspapers know all too well the damage being caused to the UK economy, and newspaper advertising revenues, by Brexit.

In a Media Leader interview last week by Jack Benjamin, Dominic Williams, chief revenue officer at Mail Metro Media, admitted how tough it was out there because of the pandemic, Ukraine, the cost-of living crisis and Brexit.

Williams was asked how much Brexit had impacted business.

That is definitely having an effect on advertising because of the UK economy, replied Williams.

Perhaps he should have a word with some of his editorial colleagues.

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Tabloids are misleading their readers over Brexit at their own peril - The Media Leader

(Bloomberg) -- More than half of Britons would vote to rejoin the European Union for the first time since the nation opted to leave the bloc seven years ago, YouGov polling showed.

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Some 51% of Britons told the polling company that they would vote for the UK to become an EU member again, while 32% said theyd stay out, according to the survey conducted last week. The proportion in favor of rejoining has risen 11 points since January 2021, when Brexit formally took place.

The findings reflect growing disillusionment among British voters about Brexit, which triggered years of divisive debate in Parliament before the UK finally left the bloc.

Britons are yet to see the promised fruits of departure from the EU, with UK holidaymakers facing longer queues at European airports and shoppers facing higher food prices fueled by both Brexit curbs on migrant workers and its effect on supply chains. A trade deal with the US, meanwhile, held as one of the great prizes of Brexit, doesnt look likely to materialize anytime soon.

Seven years on from the referendum, the UK remains in a cost-of-living crisis with inflation outstripping price rises elsewhere in Europe. Meanwhile, many regions which voted for Brexit are more likely to face a widening wealth and opportunity gap relative to richer parts of the UK, according to Bloomberg analysis earlier this year.

Some 57% of Britons told YouGov the UK was wrong to vote for Brexit in 2016, the highest figure the polling firm has recorded. One in five Britons who voted to leave the EU in 2016 now say it was the wrong decision.

Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has repeatedly said he believes in Brexit and the opportunities it presents, but his government is nevertheless seeking to renegotiate parts of the UKs exit deal that it fears will cause disruption and added costs to businesses and consumers.

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UK officials are currently in talks with their EU counterparts to delay upcoming tariffs on electric vehicles shipped between the UK and the EU and the government is also weighing options to limit the cost of post-Brexit border checks on European food imports due to start in the next six months.

In April, Bloomberg reported that Sunak also hopes to reach an agreement to let Britons use EU e-gates for passport checks, another friction point for tourists and business travelers since Brexit.

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UK Support to Rejoin the EU Passes 50% for the First Time Since Brexit - Yahoo News

British nationals are increasingly regretting their decision to leave the European Union in the move known as Brexit, which, despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying it brought benefits to the UK, more than half of the population would vote to remain in the EU.

According to the results of the YouGov survey, if the referendum was to be held again, 55 per cent of respondents said they would vote to remain in the EU, while 31 per cent said they would stay out, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

While three in ten respondents, representing 31 per cent of the total, said they would vote to leave the EU, it indicates that one in six leave voters, or 18 per cent, would change their mind and instead vote to remain in the EU if the referendum would be held again.

In addition, the data show that the interest to remain in the EU has increased, with 49 per cent of respondents voting to remain in the EU back in 2021, which grew to 55 per cent in 2023.

The number of people that would not vote or arent certain remains the same as in 2021; 13 per cent of the total respondents.

Among those that voted to leave the EU in 2021, the survey found that from 81 per cent of respondents, it shrank to 73 per cent in 2023. Similarly, from nine per cent of respondents that voted to remain in the EU, these rates doubled to 18 per cent in 2022. Additionally, the number of people who are uncertain about their decision grew by one per cent among leave voters.

Currently, 57 per cent of Britons say the 2016 decision to leave the EU was wrong, which is the highest figure YouGov has recorded to date. By comparison, one in three respondents (32 per cent) thinks this decision was right and appropriate, while one in five Leave voters (19 per cent) now say it was the wrong decision.

On top of thousands of respondents that have changed their minds and would vote to remain in the EU, seven in ten Brits say that the government handled Brexit poorly. The trend shows that the number of respondents that think the government handled the exit badly has been increasing since 2021, while the number of those that think the opposite is constantly dropping, to be hitting its lowest rate at 18 per cent.

Leaving the EU has had some severe impact on the British economy, as data by the OECD reveals that the GDP growth has decreased by 0.4 per cent since 2019, while other countries have experienced increases such as Germany and France, with 0.3 and 1.1 per cent increases in economic growth during the same period.

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Record Numbers of Brits Regretting Brexit, Survey Shows - SchengenVisaInfo.com - SchengenVisaInfo.com

Two months ago, Nigel Farage declared that Brexit had failed. Now, hes not alone.

According to a new YouGov poll, the proportion of Brits who say leaving the European Union was a mistake has hit an all-time high. YouGov surveyed over 2000 British people, of whom 63% believed Brexit has been more of a failure than a success. A mere 12% saw it as a success while 18% said it had been neither.

55% of the same respondents said that if a referendum were held again tomorrow, they would vote to rejoin while 31% said they would opt to stay out of the bloc. Some 57% now see the 2016 vote to leave the EU as the wrong decision while 32% still think it was justified.

When Farage declared Brexits failure in May, Rishi Sunak responded by boasting about the advantages Brexit was bringing in. He cited his flagship policy of freeports and VAT cuts that he claimed would make beer and sanitary products cheaper.

But Sunak, it seems, is not fooling anyone. On Thursday, he could become the first prime minister since Harold Wilson to lose three seats at a by-election, with Boris Johnsons seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip up for grabs as well as Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire and Somerton and Frome in Somerset. The by-elections fall at a time when the Conservatives sit 22 points behind Labour in the most recent poll, painting far from a pretty picture for the government.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Keir Starmer remains undeterred about his vague stance of making Brexit work regardless of whether the country is behind the sentiment.

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Almost two-thirds of Brits think Brexit has been a failure - The New European

The report titled Impact of Brexit and Covid-19 on the UK Fashion & Textiles Technology Ecosystem proposes five key recommendations to support the growth and prosperity of the UK Fashion, Textile and Technology industry.

The report was published collectively by the Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) led by the University of the Arts London and the Future Fashion Factory (FFF) led by the University of Leeds with the UK Fashion & Textile Association (UKFT)s Adam Mansell as chair of the project.

The report builds on a previous study published in July 2021, titled Mapping the UK Fashion Textiles Technology Ecosystem, which revealed the main challenges the UK fashion, textiles and technology (FTT) industry would face in the next three to five years. The challenges included changes in consumer spending; funding, tax and business rates; trade policies and Brexit; and a shortage of FTT skills.

Mansell explains the new report highlights many of the ongoing issues faced by the UK fashion and textile industry, particularly those SMEs and micro businesses that makeup over 80% of the industry.

However, he is quick to point out that the report also marks the resilience and adaptability of UK fashion and textile companies when faced with challenges such as Brexit and Covid.

Mansell describes the UKs departure from the EU the biggest change in the global trading environment in decades.

He says: With the EU accounting for 75% of the UKs fashion and textile exports and over 30% of the sectors imports, the implications of the change in relationship was always going to be hugely significant.

Despite the rhetoric, the UK EU Trade Continuity Agreement was not the simplest trade deal ever negotiated. The reality is (and was always going to be) a new trading relationship with significant administrative burdens, a large increase in costs and more limited movement of people and products.

He suggests confidence in the UK as a supply base has fallen sharply with many European companies declining to do business with UK brands due to the new trading difficulties.

Mansell explains: These difficulties are likely to increase with the development of the EUs ambitious and comprehensive textile sustainability strategy. The strategy will see a dramatic increase in legislation requiring better monitoring and reporting for all fashion and textiles sold in the EU and will apply to UK suppliers.

This research was a collaborative project with support and funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), BFTT, FFF, ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (ESRC IAA), Leeds University Business School (LUBS), UAL LCF Fashion Business School, UKFT and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Last month the UK Fashion & Textile Association (UKFT) and the British Fashion Council (BFC) said they were collaborating as co-chairs on a new government-funded circular fashion programme, which aims to facilitate and lead the development of a circular fashion ecosystem within the UK.

UKFT is also spearheading a 4m ($5.06m) project to develop and pilot an automated sorting and pre-processing plant for waste textiles (ATSP) in a bid to divert tonnes of waste from landfill each year.

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Five ways UK fashion industry can grow post-Brexit, Covid - just-style.com

For many Britons, Brexit was a one-off event involving a vote in the 2016 referendum, but for UK exporters such as Brandauer, a Birmingham-based specialised components maker, trading outside the EU has been a journey of continuous adaptation.

From handling German value added tax to mastering the intricacies of six-digit EU customs codes, Brandauer chief executive Rowan Crozier said his small company has managed to retain its EU customers thanks to precision components used in a wide range of industries including carmakers, construction and pharmaceuticals.

But Crozier is aware that in many ways Brandaeurs Brexit journey is only just beginning as the EU introduces rules on carbon border taxes, plastic waste management and supply chain monitoring.

This means EU rules are starting to diverge from UK equivalents. Divergence is an ongoing headache, he said.

Trade and industry experts warn the rising volume of future EU regulations is leading to Brexit 2.0 as the 27-nation bloc introduces rules that even when they are mirrored by the UK create fresh barriers to trade.

Were getting new [EU] legislation continuously, said Fergus McReynolds, director of EU affairs at the manufacturers trade body Make UK. So as the UK stays static, youre having to treat the EU and the UK as two completely different markets from a regulatory perspective.

McReynolds said Make UKs members are focused on three main EU regulations: the blocs upcoming carbon border tax, implementation of plastic packaging rules and draft supply chain due diligence laws being discussed by member states.

The introduction of the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism is likely to have a significant effect on companies trading with the bloc, according to George Riddell, director of trade strategy at consultancy EY, who is helping UK businesses that export to the EU prepare for the measure.

From October this year EU companies will have to compile reports on the carbon emissions attached to some imported goods, including steel, aluminium and fertilisers, with businesses having to buy certificates to cover emissions embedded in products from 2026.

The paperwork and costs associated with the carbon tax will land on UK companies who supply components to EU businesses covered by the regulation which affects products as prosaic as nuts and bolts. As a result, some of these UK companies will be more difficult to trade with for EU businesses.

From 2026, there will be cost pressures factored into where you choose your suppliers, said Riddell.

The British government is consulting industry over introducing a UK version of the EU carbon border tax, but without legally binding linkage between the two schemes, domestic businesses will still need to demonstrate compliance with the blocs rules, said William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce.

[The EU carbon border adjustment mechanism], packaging legislation, supply chain legislation are becoming an issue for UK companies on how they best order their compliance without incurring huge additional costs, he added.

British MPs were warned at a meeting in Brussels this month that they needed to track EU legislation to help UK companies respond.

Nathalie Loiseau, a senior French MEP who co-chairs the UK-EU parliamentary partnership assembly, said the two sides have started to diverge.

There is lots of legislation going through at the EU level...and we need to be aware of the impact, she said. Businesses on both sides of the Channel are saying the same thing: we want high standards and we do not want to diverge too much.

The issue affects services companies too. Accountants MHA warned that EU tax rules for virtual services will change in January 2025, meaning British businesses providing online facilities to consumers will have to pay VAT where the customer resides rather than in the UK, as now.

Sue Rathmell, partner at MHA, said: UK businesses providing virtual [business to consumer] services to the EU, such as webinars, online conferences or advertising software, require swift input from [HM Revenue & Customs] in response to the EUs intention to overhaul place of supply rules from January 2025.

McReynolds said one of the biggest challenges for business was the widely differing approaches of individual EU member states to implementing regulations such as the blocs requirement to recycle plastic packaging.

Some countries, including Spain, apply rules more strictly than others, with some EU businesses now insisting that UK companies provide proof that plastic components of manufactured goods also comply with the regulations, he added.

When the UK was an EU member, such rules were transposed automatically on to the British statute book and companies were presumed to have complied for the entire single market.

As a non-member, that presumption of compliance has been removed. Post-Brexit British firms have to comply with the domestic interpretation of EU directives of 27 different regulatory regimes, said McReynolds.

Both Make UK and British Chambers of Commerce say that now the UK is no longer automatically transposing EU law, the British government needs to do more to assess the impact of the blocs future regulations, as well as using the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the two sides to co-ordinate better with Brussels.

The UK Department for Business and Trade said the agreement was opening up new opportunities for British businesses in the EU.

We will continue to assess the impact new EU laws could have on our trade interests, as we do with other trading partners.

However, Bain said there needed to be much broader discussion about regulatory developments on both sides. We need to get a lot better at this. Everybody has to up their game.

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Make UK has called for the government to create a central register of impending EU laws and to help British companies with analysis of what they mean for business.

The alternative for British companies is a repeat of the chaotic and costly learning curve that followed the implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement in January 2021, barely a week after the eleventh-hour deal was struck between the UK and the EU, said Crozier.

Based on past form, he was not optimistic. Weve been flying blind all the way through as manufacturers. We didnt know what Brexit we were going to get until the very last minute, and Ive no faith that it wont be the same scenario all over again.

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British companies start to grapple with 'Brexit 2.0' - Financial Times