CBI: Businesses set to accelerate no-deal Brexit planning after parliament vote
British firms are set to accelerate their no-deal Brexit plans as uncertainty reigns over the nature of the UK’s departure from the EU, a major business body said today.
Last night’s decision to reopen negotiations with the bloc will not have reassures businesses, CBI boss Carolyn Fairbairn told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.
Read more: May calls for Brexit negotiations to reopen after parliament backs new plan
MPs voted on amendments that signalled they wished to avoid a no-deal scenario, but that also piled pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May to seek improved terms from EU leaders.
“I don’t think there will be a single business this morning who is stopping or halting their no-deal planning as a result of what happened yesterday, and I fear they may even be accelerating it,” Fairbairn told BBC Radio.
“The amendment feels like a real throw of the dice.”
Parliament voted down a plan that could have delayed Brexit in yesterday’s marathon of Brexit amendment debates, and hardline Brexiters backed a proposal that asks May to seek “alternative arrangements” to her controversial Irish backstop to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.
But while May claimed the vote will help her secure the changes MPs want in order to pass her deal, the EU immediately ruled out renegotiating the deal parliament rejected in December.
Fairbairn warned businesses will feel “rising frustration and concern” at yesterday’s events, adding that the vote “does nothing to take no-deal off the table and it does feel like hope rather than strategy”.
“No deal is just not manageable at this stage,” she added.
Other business groups expressed their fears that the latest debates have eaten into the two months left before the UK’s scheduled departure on 29 March.
“Another day lost while the clock is ticking,” said Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).
“Government and parliament are still going round in circles when businesses and the public urgently need answers.”
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He added: “The real-world result of Westminster’s interminable wrangling is market uncertainty, stockpiling, and the diversion of staff, money and investment.
“For every big-ticket business announcing high-profile Brexit-related decisions, there are many more quietly making the changes they need in order to safeguard their operations in the event of a disorderly Brexit. The net result of this displacement activity and uncertainty is slow but very real damage to the UK economy.”