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Busi­ness sec­ret­ary says depar­ture from EU has led to ‘sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenges’

 "Obvi­ously the UK leav­ing the EU has added bur­eau­cracy, admin­is­tra­tion and cost to the sys­tem. I

Brexit
was a min­is­ter both before and after Brexit. "Shapps said the UK would enjoy reg­u­lat­ory freedoms with a more "agile, for­ward-look­ing approach", as well as new trade deals. "The busi­ness sec­ret­ary was the most senior min­is­ter to attend the WEF, where Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer wooed world lead­ers and chief exec­ut­ives with a pro-busi­ness mes­sage.

Shapps said a fail­ure to nur­ture fast­grow­ing busi­nesses was the most press­ing chal­lenge con­front­ing the UK. The busi­ness sec­ret­ary voiced con­cern over the US gov­ern­ment's mult­i­bil­lion-dol­lar green stim­u­lus pro­gramme, sug­gest­ing that it was "dan­ger­ous" because it could lead to a "slide towards pro­tec­tion­ism" around the world. "We are great global traders, and we want the world to be as open as pos­sible," said Shapps. The UK has made lim­ited pro­gress with trade deals since Brexit, strik­ing only four new agree­ments and "rolling over" 71 held through EU mem­ber­ship.

Wil­liam Hague, former Con­ser­vat­ive leader who also backed Remain in the 2016 ref­er­en­dum, blamed this week's col­lapse of bat­tery maker Brit­ish­volt on Brexit. "It's a sad reflec­tion prob­ably on Brexit. "Some del­eg­ates at Davos said Brexit con­tin­ued to cast a long shadow over the UK. "The head of a sov­er­eign wealth fund, who declined to be iden­ti­fied, said the recent polit­ical his­tory of the UK, includ­ing Brexit was "an unmit­ig­ated dis­aster", and the coun­try had made a "cata­logue of policy mis­takes" that would take years to unwind, if ever.

With Labour enjoy­ing a lead of about 20 per­cent­age points over the Con­ser­vat­ives in opin­ion polls, Starmer said he thought Sunak should have atten­ded the WEF. Starmer, who was there with shadow chan­cel­lor Rachel Reeves, said the "absence of the UK" had been pressed on him dur­ing his meet­ings. Reeves said the dis­astrous "mini" Budget in Septem­ber, over­seen by the then prime min­is­ter Liz Truss, had made it harder to make a case for bor­row­ing to invest in growth, which is a crucial plank of Labour's strategy. 

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Comments

  1. Harry20 January 2023 at 12:17

    It's going to take decades, not years, to mitigate the damages of Brexit. This is one lesson we need to learn and learn it well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alexander20 January 2023 at 15:23

    The UK needs to quickly find ways to patch things up with the EU and strike new agreements. We can't just stay in our corner, and just play with our own toys. We need to share so we can receive.

    ReplyDelete

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