Vinny, I'm going to try to keep this as short as possible. Instead of posting the entirety of the Brexit costs, I'm going to restrict this to the last 7 or 8 weeks. Unfortunately, it's still quite long (you've only yourself to blame for that), so please bear with me.
1090. Rice Milling. There are fears that the £1bn UK rice milling industry, which employs thousands of workers, is at risk of being wiped out by a part of the post-Brexit trade deal being discussed with India, ministers have been warned. The deal to remove tariffs on imports of processed rice, proposed by Boris Johnson on a visit to Delhi in 2022, would also open the UK market to products that exceed safe pesticide limits.
1089. Financial services. Thorsten Beck, director of the Florence School of Banking and Finance, has told the European Parliament that the proposed UK-EU memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a regulatory forum will contain few changes and won’t reopen the door for London’s financial centre to the bloc. It is feared that the UK financial sector will be largely cut off from the EU market for years, according to Reuters.
1088. Cheese. The CEO of the Cold Chain Federation has warned that UK imports controls due to come into force in October this year will make it much harder to bring some goods into the UK. Shane Brennan told The Telegraph: “We’re going to see EU-based cheese and meat suppliers finding on November 1 that they can’t fulfil their Christmas orders. It’s going to come as a massive shock to the system, and there will be paralysis as a result while everything has to reset.”
1087. Online trading. The EU have proposed reforms to its customs service which will impact online at trading platforms like Amazon and Alibaba. The move will ensure goods sold online comply with all customs obligations and consumers will no longer face hidden charges or unexpected paperwork when the parcel arrives. The current exemption under which goods valued at less than €150 are excused customs duty, seen as heavily exploited by fraudsters, will be abolished.
1086. Semi-conductors. The UK government’s £1bn package of support for the semiconductor industry has been described as “insignificant” compared to the funding announced by the US and the EU, which is closer to £40bn. The chair of the parliamentary business select committee, Darren Jones, welcomed the strategy but added, “the initial £250m is a very small amount of subsidy compared to other countries”.
1085. Libraries. Hull City Council’s Library department say money provided from the government’s Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) is “significantly less than previous EU funding” obtained for their business and intellectual property service which will see a “considerable reduction in capacity.” The service is part of the British Library’s national network of Business & IP Centres, helping to transform ideas into successful businesses.
1084. Financial services: Barclays is planning to hire 200 new workers in Paris in the latest blow to the City of London in the wake of Brexit, The Telegraph reports. It currently employs around 300 people in the French capital, almost as many as its Dublin office. CEO Francesco Ceccato told Bloomberg: “The need to keep hiring traders on the continent is obvious. Europe needs to develop its capital markets to reduce reliance on banks, so we have an opportunity to grow.” Barclays plan to move into a larger Paris office near the Arc de Triomphe next year.
1083. Financial services: In March, Paris extended its lead over London as Europe’s largest stock market as companies continued to flee Britain. The London market is $250bn (£204bn) smaller than its French rival, according to data from Bloomberg and reported by The Telegraph, as fears grow that the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is losing its allure. Raoul Salomon, chief executive of Barclays France, told Bloomberg: “People do not see Paris as a short-term gig anymore. They bring their kids and buy country houses.”
1082. Euro Swaps: According to the FT, the US has cornered the majority of trades in the $100 trillion euro swap market as the stand off between London and Brussels over financial services pushed traders to send more of their deals to New York. The US’s market share hit 51%, EU venues held 35% of the market, their lowest since December 2020. The UK market slumped to just 14%. Before Brexit, Britain accounted for more than 70% of the market.
1081. Financial services: The Telegraph report that investment bankers Goldman Sachs moved to a new, 9,000-square metre Paris headquarters in 2022, with its headcount more than doubling in the country in recent years. The Wall Street trader first opened a Paris office in 2020 as a result of Brexit and moved up to $60bn (£46bn) worth of assets out of the UK and into Germany.
1080. Manufacturing: Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has joined Vauxhall maker Stellantis in criticising the current requirements of the Brexit Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) negotiated by Boris Johnson and the EU. Both firms are calling for a new timeline to delay the introduction of the so-called “rules of origin” covering where parts must be sourced from, which they say will make their vehicles uncompetitive. JLR employs around 30,000 people in the UK.
1079. Food price inflation: Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has confirmed that “Not for EU” labelling will apply to food products across the UK and will be phased in gradually from this autumn as part of the Windsor Framework deal to reduce checks on British products entering Northern Ireland. The Food and Drink Federation warned that the labelling requirement, as well as new regulations on recycling packaging, would push up the price of the weekly shop just as inflation is set to fall.
1078. Trade: A new report by the European Central Bank suggests Brexit has caused a “significant decline” in EU-UK trade in both directions while aggravating existing labour shortages in the British economy. It said the decline ranged from 10% to 25% depending on the methodology. The reports says there has been a substantial reduction in the number of products exported from the UK to the EU, but the ECB adds, “The same is not found for exports of products from the EU to the United Kingdom.”
1077. Farming: A farm in East Lancashire has applied to turn a field into a secure dog walking paddock to combat a post-Brexit drop in income. Supporting documents with the application from the 82-year old Bradley Farming Partnership says: “The farm has, like many, relied upon Basic Payment Scheme for extra farm income, which has since Brexit started to reduce. By 2024 this income stream will have halved and by 2028 will have finished in its entirety.”
1076. Vauxhall cars: Stellantis, which owns Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat, has called on the government to renegotiate part of the Brexit deal or risk losing parts of its EV car industry. The company says it can no longer meet Brexit trade rules on where parts are sourced. “If the cost of electric vehicle manufacturing in the UK becomes uncompetitive and unsustainable, operations will close,” Stellantis told MPs in a written submission.
1075. Regulations: In an editorial, The Telegraph says UK Regulators have been accused by tech bosses of excessive rule-making, driving businesses abroad. The pro-Brexit newspaper claims that “it has come to something when the sector’s bosses prefer the regulatory approach of Brussels to that of post-Brexit Britain”.
1074. Education: The head of a primary school in Hackney which is earmarked for closure next summer claims the 150-year old establishment is closing because it has too few pupils. Jo Riley, head of the Randal Crener school warned that some families have fled London because they no longer feel “wanted or needed” since Brexit. She added that some of the most marginalised families in the area are feeling “pushed out, unwanted and unheard.”
1073. Labour shortages: According to a recent survey by Finbri, a financial services company, 83% of UK business owners are either concerned or strongly concerned about the impact of labour shortages on their companies. Stephen Clark, Bridging Loan Broker at Finbri, said labour shortages have become an ongoing conversation among businesses since Brexit, and the issue is only likely to worsen in the short term, offering little to contribute to the UK economy’s rebound.
1072. Horticulture: A horticultural business in Malton, North Yorkshire has had to pull out of the Chelsea Flower Show due to what it describes as “bureaucracy gone mad.” The company has been unable to import species from the EU due to post-Brexit rule changes in the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) regulations. Wack’s Wicked Plants now require import licences and are struggling to obtain plants.
1071. Food price inflation: A report by Sky News says soaring food and non-alcoholic drink prices are driving record-high UK inflation. The UK government denies this is related to Brexit but the Food and Drink Federation say it has “made the situation worse for UK manufacturers.” NFU president Minetter Batters says that while the UK was still in the EU, it was the “preferred country to work in” for seasonal labour, but now we’re out and freedom of movement has ended, the lack of EU workers has been a ‘huge, huge issue’.”
1070. Labour shortages: Industry leaders have hit back at Home Secretary Suella Braverman, accusing her of being disconnected from the realities facing sectors suffering labour shortages. Ms Braverman claimed that there is “no good reason” why more British people can’t be trained to take up jobs as butchers and fruit pickers. Nick Allen, CEO at the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), said it would take “decades” for the meat industry to shift to no longer be reliant on staff recruited from abroad.
1069. Athletics: The English triathlete Lucy Charles-Barclay has been forced to give up hopes of competing at IRONMAN 70.3 in Kraichgau Germany next week, after she was unable to obtain a visa. Posting on Instagram, she revealed that she had used 88 of the 90 days allowed in the Schegen area and told her followers, “So for now I will be training hard at home and my next race will most likely be UK based so watch this space.”
1068. Irish imports: A funding dispute between the UK and Scottish government’s has stalled work on a new Border Control Post planned for Cairnryan in Galloway to check goods coming from the Republic of Ireland and wider EU via Northern Ireland. The BCP is politically sensitive because there is still a question of how officials at Cairnryan will be able to discriminate between goods from Northern Ireland which have been promised ‘unfettered access’ and the Republic of Ireland which may require inspection.
1067. Energy: Energy UK, an industry body which represents power generators and traders, said UK households have paid the price for “inefficient trading” arrangements since 2021, with electricity no longer exchanged through the EU market coupling regime. Consumers paid as much as £1.1bn more in 2022 after losing access to EU internal markets. Higher carbon prices added £700mn while bills were also boosted by as much as £370m due to post-Brexit trading arrangements, which mean inter-connector power is bought and sold less efficiently.
1066. Hospitality: Sir Rocco Forte, the wealthy hotelier, Brexiteer, Tory donor and supporter of both Johnson and Truss has become ‘disillusioned’ by the aftermath of Brexit and may decide to move to Italy. Sir Rocco is said to be “depressed” by the state of the UK “and the direction in which it’s going”. He doesn’t know how he’ll vote at the next election. “We’re in a throwback to the 1970s, which I remember very well,” he laments in an interview with The Times.
1065. Food resilience: The NFU reported that in 2023 domestic salad production hit a 40-year low while egg production fell to its weakest level since 2013. UK agriculture is said to be ‘navigating the fallout from Brexit and the pandemic’ with many farmers throwing in the towel amid soaring costs and labour shortages. It comes as the government has called a ‘food summit’ to be held in Downing Street this week.
1064. Investment: According to The Times, figures from the Investment Association show UK wealth management firms control more than £10 trillion in assets but just £1.6 trillion is invested in this country amd only £40 bn in infrastructure. The proportion of share portfolios devoted to British firms has fallen from 37% to 23% in just a decade. The article says “Leaving the EU was always going to hit the economy” but fears are growing that the government post-Brexit is not doing enough to attract new investors.
1063. Foreign investment: According to figures from the accountants Ernst & Young, France has taken first place in the league of foreign direct investment in European countries, pipping the UK for the second year running. France received 1,259 projects, breaking the European record for the second time. Experts have partially blamed post-Brexit uncertainty for Britain seeing just 929 new projects.
1062. Construction: Siteright Construction Supplies, a manufacturer in Dorset, has told the British Chambers of Commerce that importing parts from the European Union to fix broken machines has become a costly and “time-consuming nightmare.” In a survey of more than 1,168 businesses, the BCC found 77% said Brexit has not helped them increase sales or grow their businesses. More than half said they were finding it difficult to adapt to the new rules for trading goods.
1061. Jewellery: Little Star, a UK company that makes jewellery for children saw business ‘take off’ in Holland before Brexit and had plans to expand into France and Germany. But since Brexit, only two of its 30+ Dutch customers are prepared to handle the costs and paperwork to obtain stock from the company. Products that took two days to ship are now taking three weeks, while import duties and sales taxes have made it much harder to compete with European jewellers, according to Rob Walker, who co-founded the business with his wife in 2017.
1060. Welsh funding: According to the LSE Blog, parts of the UK which benefited from the EU’s Regional and Social Funds have sustained heavy financial and enabling losses. Wales, it claims was expecting to received £1.4 billion in the 2020-25 EU Budget while the latest “round” of allocation from the UK’s “Shared Prosperity Fund” brings the total post-Brexit Development funding for Wales up to £840 million – £560 million less. A further loss of £243 million because of the post-Brexit reduction in farm funding is also forecast.
1059. Rabbis: Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, has said that Brexit was primarily behind the organisation’s planned relocation of its European headquarters to Munich, Germany. Goldschmidt told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last week that “Germany is one of the only countries in Europe where the Jewish community is growing and the political climate is conducive to build Jewish life there,” confirming that Brexit was a leading factor in the move.
1058. Dyson: The vacuum cleaner entrepreneur Sir James Dyson has launched a scathing attack on the prime minister’s pledge to make the UK a “science and technology superpower” after Brexit. The brexit supporting billionaire has warned that government policies are deterring multibillion-pound companies like Dyson from investing in the UK in favour of countries that “encourage growth and innovation rather than deter them”. He also says that Sunak has refused to meet him and other.
1057. REUL bill: The Employment Lawyers Association has warned that the REUL bill, by “wiping the slate clean” of the precedents on which previous court judgments were founded, means that businesses and employers will no longer be able to predict their obligations under the law with certainty. Paul McFarlane, chair of the ELA said removing EU law principles from UK law has a potential knock-on impact on how primary acts of parliament may be interpreted in the future.
1056. Southampton: Southampton City Council have said the gridlocked traffic which impacted drivers and caused “mass disruption” as holidaymakers travelled to the city’s cruise ship terminals was due to Border Force carrying out impromptu security checks. A spokesperson said: “Border Force are carrying out impromptu security checks on all passengers which is slowing everything down and causing delays and congestion on the roads.”
1055. Trade: George Eustice, a former environment secretary, under Boris Johnson, has accused ministers and officials of giving “too much away in trade talks without getting much in return.” Last year he described Britain’s free trade deal with Australia – largely negotiated by Liz Truss – as a failure. Eustice claimed there was “a wider problem within the government and within the Conservative Party in general” over liberalising trade.
1054. Manufacturing: Profits at an Ulster blind manufacturer plunged “due to Brexit hit and pandemic boost wearing off” according to the Belfast Telegraph. Fourds Ltd, trading as Bloc Blinds, say Brexit has presented “challenges” and a “more significant impact to Bloc with uncertainty to business trading” during the financial year ending April 2022. Fourds’ turnover fell 87% and profits by 99%.
1053. Travel: Passengers who had a flight to Florence with Spanish airline Vueling cancelled at the last minute have had difficulty obtaining compensation. Coby Benson, an airline compensation expert, told The Guardian that Vueling should have provided a full refund within seven days of the cancellation, adding, “Prior to Brexit, we were able to issue court proceedings against it with relative ease using the European small claims procedure. However, that is no longer an option”.
1052. Potatoes: Richard Orr, who runs William Orr and Son Potato Growers in Co. Down, grows, packs and distributes potatoes across Northern Ireland but says, “Brexit in essence, has meant, we are now limited to sourcing all seeds from within Northern Ireland”. The additional paperwork required to import ware potatoes from GB using the Trader Support Service means the company has had to employ an extra member of staff “purely to deal with the extra admin.”
1051. Eggs: The co-owner of Cavanagh Free-Range Eggs in Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh, Eileen Hall says before Brexit, “We used to sell a lot of eggs over to the UK.” But they have now decided to concentrate on the NI market instead because “everything seemed to be a lot of hassle”. Hall said, “Getting parts delivered from the mainland UK is another problem for us. [Suppliers] won’t deliver direct to Northern Ireland, so we have to order them and get them sent to our farm in Scotland, go over and fetch them and bring them back on the boat ourselves.”
1050. Retail: Forme, one of Winchester’s longest-standing independent shops, is closing and moving to Italy. Brexit was one of the deciding factors. The family business, which sells Italian gift and homeware items, opened in Parchment Street 24 years ago but importing goods from Europe has become much more expensive and difficult with the number of companies that want to supply to England decreasing by about 80%.
1049. Golden visas: Spain is considering ending its so-called “golden visa” scheme, which has been used by Britons to obtain residency since Brexit. The scheme allows non-EU nationals a three-year residency if they buy property worth €500,000 (£436,000) or more or invest the same amount in businesses. The EU has warned its member states to end such schemes or make it harder for applicants to qualify, amid fears the programmes have been exploited by criminals to launder cash in villas or bogus companies.
1048. Immigration: Immigration experts are predicting migration levels to the UK could soar to twice the numbers seen before Brexit, according to The Telegraph. The number entering the UK minus those leaving – could hit a record high of 675,000, double the pre-Brexit peak of 331,000 eight years ago and surpassing the previous record high of 504,000 set in the year to June 2022. The jump has been fuelled by a continued sharp increase in non-EU migrants entering the UK to work, study, escape conflict or oppression and join relatives. The number of EU citizens arriving has slumped since Brexit ended freedom of movement.
1047. Giga factories: The CEO of the luxury-car maker Bentley, Adrian Hallmark, has warned the UK’s failure to attract investments from electric vehicle start-ups or large battery makers was “concerning.” He told the FT: “It’s surprising, if not a bit concerning that no [electric vehicle] manufacturer or battery manufacturer has chosen the UK over any other location as an investment destination.” China’s BYD has previously said that it did not even consider a plant in the country because of its decision to leave the EU.
1046. Regulations: A survey of members of the Institute of Directors on the impact of the government’s plans to scrap up to 4,000 EU laws has revealed that their “preference is for regulatory stability in the current framework”. Dr Roger Barker, director of policy at the IOD said, “Rules and regulations across a range of business-relevant areas could be changed or removed without the normal processes of parliamentary scrutiny or stakeholder consultation. This gives rise to a level of regulatory uncertainty which is extremely unhelpful for business.”
1045. Rewilding: The conservationist group Trees for Life has claimed that Brexit has made the task of rewilding Scotland more difficult. Steve Micklewright said that the UK leaving the EU had presented problems in their efforts to rewild an area of the Highlands “the size of a small country”. He said, “We are one of the last beneficiaries of [European development funding] in Scotland. We won’t have that any more. So if somebody else wants a rewilding centre, a really important source of European funding … has gone”.
1044. Labelling: Milk, butter, meat, fish and vegetables may be labelled “not for EU” across the whole of the UK, and not just Northern Ireland, as agreed under Rishi Sunak’s Windsor Framework which will begin coming into force in October. Sir Iain Duncan Smith has described the regulation as “ridiculous” while David Jones, former cabinet minister, said, “There is no good reason why food produced and sold in any part of the United Kingdom should be labelled ‘not for EU’, much less if it is sold in mainland Great Britain.”
1043. REUL bill: The government has awarded a £4mn contract to a top London law firm for help delivering on a promised post Brexit “bonfire” of 4,000 EU-era laws. The business department has hired lawyers from Hogan Lovells, one of the largest firms in the UK amid reports that the government is likely to fall short of its plan to rid the statute books of EU law by the end of the year.
1042. Tourism: The co-owner of a cafe in Stirling has expressed disappointment that her application for cash to pilot a project to help recruit staff in the local area has been declined. Sarah Heward, co-owner of The Real Food Café, missed out on funding for her tourism and hospitality training scheme. Heward expressed frustration that so little is being done to tackle the labour shortage caused by Brexit which is threatening the viability of one of Scotland’s most economically important industries.
1041. Trade: A South Korean keyboard manufacturer has a notice on their website: “Important announcement, For orders from the UK, orders under $200 will not be processed and it will be canceled due to Brexit.” Geon have been advised by their customs agent that there are many situations where customs clearance is delayed, so the amount excluding shipping could be more than $200 and so they decline orders below that value.
1040. Labour shortages: A report by the House of Lords European Affairs committee has warned that the government needed to do more to address “well-documented labour shortages”. Post-Brexit visa rules need to be changed in order to help firms overcome worsening labour shortages. The complexity of visa regulations in the wake of Britain exiting the EU has proved a “significant barrier to mobility”
1039. The City: Cambridge-based software company ARM has chosen to list on the New York stock exchange rather than London. ARM hope to raise $10bn with its initial public offering (IPO), an amount it believes would not be possible in Britain. The company’s co-founder Herman Hauser told the BBC: “The fact is that New York is a much deeper market than London, partially because of the the Brexit idiocy the image of the London stock exchange has suffered a lot in the international community.”
1038. Science: An editorial in the world’s most prestigious scientific journal, Nature, argues that British scientists are right to reject the UK government’s proposed alternative to Horizon, the EU’s flagship €95bn research funding scheme. The alternative plan, known as Pioneer, Nature say is ‘near-silent on maintaining the collaborations needed to meet crucial global goals on climate and sustainability and does not guarantee funding. The verdict of the leading UK research institutions is near-unanimous they claim: anything less than full membership of Horizon Europe will be an inferior outcome.
1037. Audio-Visual services: Brexit has been overwhelmingly negative, according to the latest review of the country’s pro-AV market by AV Magazine. Potential upsides are ‘swamped by the experience today of red tape, uncertainty and loss of access to the EU single market.’ Ken Morrison, sales director at Sennheiser, says: “The benefit part is easy – there are none, travel is more expensive and more restricted, and international trade has become more challenging, leading to more vacant high street shops and empty offices. Combined with other factors such as rising fuel bills, it feels like the perfect storm.”
APRIL 2023 ⇓
1036. Football: Top-flight UK football clubs need to comply with a complex governing body endorsement (GBE) points-based system to recruit overseas players after Brexit. The FA is now proposing a new plan to allow clubs to employ more foreign players with “great potential” and who make a “significant contribution” to be signed in exchange for allowing UK born players more ‘playing minutes.’ Paul Barber, Brighton & Hove Albion’s chief executive, said that UK clubs were at a “big disadvantage” with European rivals.
1035. Hospitality: Brexit is said to be “killing the hospitality industry,” according to statistics compiled by The Independent. Almost 4,600 pubs, clubs, hotels and restaurants closed in the year to 31 March 2023 a six-fold increase over 2022. It is claimed the figures lay bare the devastating impact of staff shortages caused by Brexit, as well as the cost of living crisis. Luke Wasserman, the co-owner of Fenn, a restaurant in Hackney said: “Prior to Brexit, I believe things were very different. We had 10 good candidates per job before we left the EU; now we are lucky if anyone turns up.”
1034. Passports: Despite warnings, UK travellers trying to enter the Schengen zone are being turned away on a daily basis by airline staff at boarding gates – mostly because their UK passport is over ten years old. A teacher from Brighton, is one of the latest. Rosi Simpson was left “mortified and in tears” after easyJet staff refused to allow her to board a flight to Paris to see her son, who is studying there, because her UK passport had been issued ten years and one day previously.”
1033. Manufacturing: The MD of a Derbyshire-based playing card maker, Jeremy Shaw, says its export business has been almost completely wiped out by Brexit. The country’s leading producer of heritage playing cards has lost 85% of his company’s trade with EU customers – which accounted for 35% of its total turnover. Shaw said, “The paperwork and the costs of getting packages over to the EU mean they think it is just not worth it. Brexit has been a complete and utter disaster”.
1032. Standards: In a letter to Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, 25 leading British safety bodies have warned that proceeding with plans to revoke or replace up to 4,000 Retained EU laws by the end of 2023, would inflict a serious blow to workplace standards. The group, which includes the TUC, the British Safety Council and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said the government’s timetable created dangerous uncertainty. TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said the legislation was “reckless” and could be a disaster for workers’ safety. “Ministers must step back from the brink and ditch this bill before it’s too late,” he added.
1031. Microsoft: The President of US giant Microsoft, Brad Smith, has said the EU is a better place to start a business than Britain post-Brexit, as he launched a stinging attack on the UK’s decision to block a $69bn (£55bn) deal to takeover Activision Blizzard. Smith said people around the world were “shocked” by the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) ruling against the takeover of the Call of Duty developer, and suggested the decision would cause businesses to think twice about investing and growing their businesses in the UK.
1030. Medicines: Research by Imperial College Business School suggests fewer novel drugs were authorised by the the UK’s Medicines Agency in 2021 – its first year of post Brexit independence – than by the EU. The MHRA issued 35 approvals in the UK, compared to 40 in Europe and 52 in the US. And Nearly 70% of new drugs authorised by UK authorities relied on the EU’s approval process. The report also says there were encouraging results from early steps made to fast-track new drugs.
1029. Manufacturing: The CEO of Unipart, John Neil has told the BBC he is considering moving investment to the US or Europe due to new subsidies offered there. The parts and logistics giant has 8,000 employees and Neil has asked his team to consider whether the company should be “pivoting more into those markets and possibly also into our European companies”. It follows Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and similar plans being formulated in Brussels. The UK government has made no announcement so far.
1028. Borders: The Telegraph’s chief consumer and culture editor, Nick Trend says processing times for British passport holders arriving at EU airports are highly unpredictable, and it is now “rare to get through without a wait.” Brexit, he says, has made the whole experience of crossing borders even worse. When the EU’s automated Entry Exit System (EES) enters into force it will hold more data on UK citizens that the British government system, including the date and place of entry and exit, and our fingerprints.
1027. Luxury goods: Gerry Murphy, chairman of the luxury goods retailer Burberry, said the the scrapping of VAT refunds for tourists after Brexit was a “spectacular own goal” and had made Britain the “least attractive shopping destination in Europe.” Murphy said leaving the single market had had a “significant friction effect on trade.” He challenged Rishi Sunak at the Business Connect conference in London, which saw around 200 high-profile chief executives given the opportunity to question the prime minister.
1026. Exodus: Brexit has been blamed for the surge in UK chief executives quitting their jobs, according to research by management consultants Russel Reynolds, reported in The Telegraph. The number jumped by 111% in 2022, as bosses battle sluggish growth and a nightmare of EU red tape. This far exceeded the 39% increase among America’s S&P 500. The research found that 38 chief executives quit as the heads of Britain’s largest listed companies, up from just 18 in 2021.
1025. Food safety: Writing in the British Medical Journal, academics at Newcastle University have claimed that the UK’s post-Brexit decision to join the CPTPP, one of the world’s largest free trade agreements could threaten public health. They call for an “health impact assessment” to be carried our before signing the deal, which they said could “lead to a weakening of food safety standards” and could compromise situations where the “precautionary principle” is used to make laws to protect public health – such as when it comes to regulation of alcohol and tobacco.
1024. Food inflation: A member of a major British business group, speaking to Politico on condition of anonymity, said that post-Brexit red tape for EU imports coming in in October via the government’s Target Border Operating Model will mean “some producers on the EU side will find it is no longer possible to trade with the UK”, adding that “It will add to the costs, and probably inflation, but I think we need to go through this so we can work with the EU to find advantageous improvements”.
1023. Education: Dundee and Angus College have suffered an estimated £1mn drop in funding since Brexit. In a new report Gregory Colgan, Dundee City Council’s CEO said, “Despite the allocations, the resources available for Dundee fall short of what would have been expected from the EU.” A spokesperson for the college said: “Reduction in European funding has been a concern for D&A College since Brexit, as it is for the local region.
1022. Financial services: Milan is said to have become an Italian powerhouse with “newfound energy and confidence” partly driven by Brexit. A significant number of bankers, fund managers and other financial services workers have shifted from London to Milan with the pace of relocation an accelerating trend over the last couple of years. A banker who returned to Milan after ten years in London said: “You have the same financial community you had in London but in a place where there are tax incentives, and where the weather and quality of life are better.”
1021. Books: At the 2023 London Book Fair, not a single publisher contacted by the trade journal Publishers Weekly had a single positive thing to say about the impact of Brexit. Everything is more expensive including printing, warehousing and shipping, with endless forms and returned packages. Peter Gill, managing director at Graffeg, also claims: “Brexit triggered more than import export issues, it destroyed the prospect of working with European partners on development projects, where benefits and outcomes could be shared alike.”
1020. Trade: The latest ONS Trade statistics say in 2021, the first full year after Brexit, Britain fell in the global ranking of the top 30 exporting countries for both goods and services, from fifth place to seventh , slipping behind France and Holland. Using the chained volume measure to remove the effects of inflation, the ONS said UK trade (both exports and imports) has “remained relatively stable over the past year”.
1019. Transport: There has been a “huge” increase in the number of enquiries from UK haulage and warehousing firms desperately trying to employ foreign workers, according to law firm Aaron & Partners and reported by MotorTransport. Adam Haines, immigration and employment law partner, said: “There’s a growing skills shortage in the UK and with historically low levels of unemployment, many companies are turning to other countries to address these issues” adding that the problem could run to the “end of 2023 and beyond”.
1018. Language teaching: English UK (EUK), the association representing the English Language Training (ELT) sector say 83% of the EU youth groups who enjoyed study holidays in Britain chose to go elsewhere in the summer of 2022 due to new post-Brexit passport and visa requirements. This compares to ELT competitors within the EU, Ireland and Malta, which lost just 30% of their equivalent trade after covid. EUK say unless the UK government reform the rules the £1.4bn sector may not recover until 2030. Some 25% of European study travel agent believe it will never fully recover.
1017. Technology: Herman Hauser, co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners and ARM Holdings, has put the chances of Britain becoming the next Silicon Valley as the chancellor has suggested, at “zero.” He told the BBC’s Newsnight that in regard to semiconductors Britain will always remain a “minnow” and said the 2016 Brexit referendum vote was the “biggest loss of British sovereignty since 1066”.
1016. Fishing: Scarborough and Whitby MP Sir Robert Goodwill claims Whitby Seafoods and the port of Kilkeel in Co Down, that rely fishers from the Philippines to harvest langoustines could go out of business without special visa exemptions. “I am not crying wolf when I say this is really putting at risk the scampi industry,” Sir Robert told MPs. Post Brexit changes to the visa system in March mean overseas fishermen now need a skilled migration visa, with the Home Office refusing exemptions. DUP MP Carla Lockhart said “It is inexplicable that the Government are singling out the fishing industry for a separate, damaging policy.
1015. Tourism: Tom Jenkins, chief executive of ETOA, the European tourism association says the UK is also losing out on tourists from the rest of the world. “People are starting to drop the UK as a gateway to a European tour,” he said. “It’s not the only factor, but previously we had been the principal arrival point for people coming to Europe from America, from Japan, and anywhere else.” He added that, “This is really Brexit biting everyone on the backside”.
1014. Charities: Northern Ireland charities are poised to lose millions in EU money next year as a result of Brexit, leading to warnings that their survival is on the line. These NGOs claim the British government’s replacement fund will leave a hole in their finances, potentially exacerbating social inequalities.
1013. Pharmacies: England’s pharmacies are said to be ‘on the brink of collapse’ – struggling with a shortage of staff and medical supplies – combined with increased patient demand and soaring costs, according to an industry survey shared with Channel 4. The problems are caused by a combination of factors including Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic.
1012. Ireland: In stark contrast to the UK, Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute think tank predicts the country’s economy will grow 5.5% this year, and a huge 6% next year. Meanwhile, Britain’s Office for Budget Responsibility predict that the UK economy would shrink by 0.2% in 2023. Many economists argue that the ‘major cause’ is Brexit. Ireland’s GDP per capita is now twice that of the UK.
1011. Trade deficit: The trade deficit widened in February as export volumes declined to more than 9% below the 2019 pre-pandemic average even after global trade increased by 23% in 2021 alone. The ONS estimates that the damage from Brexit is likely to have been even larger than the trade figures suggest because changes in its data collection methods have boosted present trade data relative to how the numbers would have been measured before 2022.
1010. Food safety: Professor Chris Elliott, who headed the horsemeat scandal inquiry in 2013 warns the UK is isolated from intelligence over food supply chains in Europe, increasing the risk of new scandals. Elliott said that Brexit meant the UK no longer benefited from membership and intelligence briefings of the EU Agri-Food Fraud Network, which helps coordinate activities concerning cross-border food fraud.
1009. Exodus: Simon French, Head of Research at investment bank Panmure Gordon, said Brexit has been a “big contributing factor” in companies snubbing the City of London in favour of listing in New York. UK stock market valuations have slumped since the 2016 vote to leave the EU. Flutter Entertainment, which owns bookmaker Paddy Power, is reported to be consulting shareholders over a listing on the NYSE. They would follows Chip maker Arm and building materials firm CRH, which have a combined market value of around £80bn, in choosing the US over London.
1008. Ineos: The Monaco based owner of Ineos Chemicals, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has announced plans to build an electric version of its new Grenadier off-road vehicle in Austria. Billionaire Ratcliffe, a vocal Brexit backer, chose a French factory to build the the original Grenadier, meaning Britain has twice lost out on significant investment.
1007. The City: Bloomberg report that two years after Brexit there has been a clear shift by financial firms across the Channel with several European Union cities sharing the spoils at the expense of London. Paris is said to be the bloc’s new pre-eminent financial hub while Amsterdam, Frankfurt. Dublin, Milan, Madrid and Warsaw are playing important supporting roles. The City has effectively given up its mantle as the default location for companies to tap global pools of capital via stock and bond markets.
1006. SMEs: Research by Birmingham Business School suggests that Midlands-based SMEs face extra costs, delays and disruption in getting supplies into the EU. Some EU customers have turned to EU-based suppliers, and in other cases, Midlands-based firms have opened or expanded operations in the EU. Importing firms are responding to Brexit in several ways, such as switching to non-EU sourcing. Smaller firms are said to really struggle with customs and rules of origin paperwork resulting in some companies ceasing to export or using expensive stockpiling at hubs inside the bloc.
1005. The economy: The UK economy is yet to feel the worst impacts of Brexit, according to Kristine Braden, CEO of Citibank Europe. Speaking at a Bloomberg during panel discussion at the New Economy Gateway Europe conference, she said, “The messier part is yet to come,” in terms of the impact on financial services. Citigroup Inc is still in the process of moving employees and is now entering a third phase, moving some of its products from the UK to other European countries. Her view was backed up by APCO Worldwide LLC adviser Declan Kelleher, who said cross-border trade frictions are likely to increase as the UK begins to implement new rules.
1004. Compensation: Passengers on bus and coach trips to the continent which are delayed could lose their right to compensation under the controversial retained EU law (REUL) bill. Legislation specifically designed to offer redress for those on trips of longer than 250km (155 miles) has been omitted from a government list of more than 3,700 laws that could be scrapped. Rocio Concha, the director of policy and advocacy at the Which? consumer group, said: “It’s clear that the government does not currently have a firm enough grip on the extent of legislation which is at risk of simply slipping off the statute books by mistake.”
1003. Books: Shipping books to the EU is now expensive and complex. Rail Books in the UK for example quote £30 for economy courier delivery (£55 express) for a book costing £4.50 in the UK. This is on a DDU basis (Incoterms – delivered, duty unpaid) which means the EU customer may also be charged import duty as well.
1002. Spouse visas: Annabel Fenwick Elliott, a freelance journalist who is listed on Muckrack as a senior content editor at The Telegraph, has been left ‘crushed’ after she was unable to obtain a spouse visa for her German born fiancé to come and live in London with her and their son Jasper. Elliot, writing in The Times, says she was unable to meet the minimum earnings threshold of £22,400 after being on unpaid maternity leave last year
1001. Cornwall: Cornish food businesses have claimed lack of government support and labour shortages have left them “stunted” post-Brexit, according to The Grocer. The biggest challenges are linked to staffing and skills shortages post-Brexit, maintaining trade with the EU and accessing new markets outside Cornwall, a recent survey of about 50 Cornish businesses showed. Louise Ellis, co-founder of food and drink network Cornwall Gateway. “Our farms relied on European workers – we’re now watching them stockpile stuff on their fields. I’ve never seen so much wasted crops, ahead of Christmas you could smell rotten broccoli and brussels sprouts in the fields.”
