Happy Fall from Grace, Brexit!!!

The moderators have asked that restraint be used in publishing this list. Unfortunately, the list of Brexit damages is very, very long, creating something of a nuisance for some readers.

It's some time since the list last had an airing, so let's take a special birthday look at the damage caused by Brexit, as polls consistently show a majority now regrets the outcome of the referendum and one of it's principal architects is forced to resign for being a liar:



1165. Trade. Matthew Lesh, director of Public Policy and Communications at the Institute of Economic Affairs has admitted that even after Brexit, the UK is “adding more red tape.” Mr Leish claims that according to official government estimates, that normally tend underestimate the actual regulatory costs, the regulatory burden on businesses since 2017 has actually “increased by an astonishing £22bn.”



1164. The Arts. Two major summer art fairs in London have been cancelled this year, with organisers partly blaming Brexit. Masterpiece and Olympia have both been cancelled with concerns being raised about the threat Brexit poses to the UK’s status as a major global art market. Increasing amounts of red tape and the introduction of an import VAT rate of 5%, have made it considerably harder to move art between the UK and Europe. Sky News has been told that the number of EU-based galleries applying to participate this year had dropped by 86% compared to 2018.



1163. Semi-conductors. The Telegraph report that Britain is being ‘sidelined’ as the US semi-conductor giant Intel goes on a ‘spending spree’ across Europe. €30bn (£26bn) in new funding has been announced, agreed in exchange for an offer of €10bn in subsidies from Germany’s Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and will fund a “megafab” – a vast semiconductor factory – in the city of Magdeburg, operational within four years. In 2021, Intel’s CEO decided against Britain for the company’s new semiconductor factories after Brexit.



1162. Dairy industry. Arla Foods, the UK’s largest dairy co-operative has warned of further price rises unless the government “urgently” addresses farming labour shortages. The maker of Lurpak, Cravendale milk and Anchor butter, said that industry labour shortages were fuelling food price inflation and “could well lead to a crisis in milk production if it is not addressed as a matter of urgency.” A survey of Arla’s farmer owners found that 58 per cent are finding it harder to source staff compared to 2019, before the pandemic and Brexit.



1161. Skiing. The UK’s largest independent ski tour operator has pulled out of much of its operation in Austria as a result of post-Brexit red tape, according to City A.M. London based Skiworld which runs chalets across the Alps – say that a drop in the number of UK staff it is able to employ overseas as a result of post-Brexit bureaucracy, has prompted it to stop operating the majority of its chalets in the country.



1160. Farming. The Scotsman reports that Scottish farmers and crofters face more environmental conditions in order to become eligible for post-Brexit subsidy payments from the government. The new conditions include requirements for all farmers and crofters to carry out soil testing, carbon and biodiversity audits, and follow an animal health and welfare declaration to qualify for any support payment from 2025 onwards.



1159. Vaccines. The Oxford Vaccines group claim that pressures on the NHS, a lack of doctors and post-Brexit delays are hampering the UK’s ability to develop cutting-edge drugs. A review has identified a multitude of factors that have led to a decline in clinical trials and have undermined the competitiveness of the UK clinical research environment. A key underlying problem is also the general shortage of critical medical and nursing staff compounded by a decline in European doctors coming to the UK.



1158. Trade. Volker Treier, head of foreign trade at the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), has told Reuters that Brexit has been an “economic disaster” for trade and investment ties between the UK and Germany, leading to a fall in German direct investment and seeing the UK decline in importance as a trading partner, dropping from fifth to eleventh place since 2016. According to the DIHK, some 2,163 German companies are now active in the UK, 5.2% fewer than in 2016.



1157. Trade. Professor Jonathan Portes has evaluated the debate around the economic impact of Brexit between pro and anti Brexit economist for the think tank UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE) and concludes that in his “central view remains that the best estimate of the negative impact on Brexit on UK GDP [so far] is 2-3% of GDP” equivalent to £50 -£75 billion a year in lost output and £17- £25 billion in reduced tax revenue.



1156. Tourism. The CEO of a UK trade association for the tourism industry said revenue from foreign school trips has ‘drastically reduced’ post-Brexit. Figures from a survey by the Tourism Alliance and its partner members shows Britain has only recovered 61% of the school group market it had in 2019, while school group trips inside the EU have already recovered to well above pre-pandemic figures – 108 per cent, according to a survey.



1155. Fishing. Fishermen in Peterhead who voted to leave the EU have said they were promised a “new dawn” before being “sold down the river”. Speaking to The Daily Record, veterans and industry chiefs have said their sector had been treated as the “poster boy” for Brexit then “sacrificed” in the trade deal Boris Johnson agreed with the EU. Skipper Peter Bruce said the reality of leaving Europe had shattered his trust in Brexiteer politicians.



1154. Trade. Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary has been criticised by business groups for trying to “shift the blame” after she told British businesses that international trade “isn’t too tough”. Emma Rowland, a trade policy advisor at the Institute of Directors said UK exports had been “sluggish” since the pandemic and added, “It’s clear Brexit has had the largest influence over businesses’ exporting strategies, having created barriers to trade and also increased competition from EU-based firms.”



1153. Trade. The think tank UK in a Changing Europe says the 30% increase in global trade volumes in goods between 2019 and 2022 has ‘largely bypassed the UK’. For the same three-year period, UK export growth was virtually zero, while services did marginally better, with an 11% increase in export value for 2021 compared to 2019. UKICE say their research shows UK exports to the EU fell by 22.1% and importing from the EU was 9.5% less than it would have been if the UK had not left the EU indicating that post-Brexit export challenges are persisting.



1152. Delis. Many UK businesses which import food products from the EU will have to pay a special “Brexit tax” that will further drive up prices, particularly in smaller shops such as delicatessens, under proposals set out by the government last week. The planned £43 charge per consignment, outlined in a c onsultation document issued by the DEFRA was described by a leading industry figure as “the sting in the tail of a post-Brexit food inspection regime” that was already fuelling inflation.



1151. Iceland. Ireland’s Food Safety Authority (FSAI) has served a notice on Iceland Ireland for the immediate withdrawal of imported frozen food of animal origin. The notice applies to Metron Stores Ltd which operates as Iceland Foods, and relates to products imported into Ireland since 3 March this year. The authority said there was “inadequate evidence of traceability” of imported frozen food from the retailer.



1150. Inflation. The former Bank of England governor Mark Carney has blamed Brexit for Britain’s stubbornly high inflation and claims he had warned the public that leaving the EU would damage the economy. In an interview with The Telegraph he said: “a series of “negative supply shocks” had disrupted the economy and led to an unexpected increase in costs, adding that there was “no joy in saying: well, ‘we told you so’ because people are having to live with that reality.” Mr Carney said the biggest shocks in decades could take years to unwind.



1149. Millionaires. High net worth individuals are leaving the UK at double the rate of last year, new data shows, with Brexit, uncertainty over non-dom status and deterioration of the country’s National Health Service since 2010 among the top reasons given by researchers for the exodus. Around 3,200 millionaires are forecast to emigrate from the UK, placing it third on the global scale of countries that are losing residents with investable wealth of at least $1 million. Only China and India will lose more millionaires.



1148. Covid. Hugo Keith KC, the lead lawyer to the official Covid inquiry says work around a possible no-deal exit from the EU may have impacted the pandemic response planning. Mr Keith asked, “Did the attention therefore paid to the risks of a no-deal exit – Operation Yellowhammer as it was known – drain the resources and capacity that should have been continuing the fight against the next pandemic, that should have been utilised in preparing the United Kingdom for a civil emergency?”



1147. The arts. Art world insiders claim the impact of Brexit on London’s art market has been ‘calamitous.’ At 5%, the UK’s import VAT rate for works of art, antiques and collectors’ items was the lowest in the EU, making the UK the obvious point of entry for art and antiquities coming into the customs union. But Matthew Travers, a director of Piano Nobile, says Brexit “threw a spanner in the works.” France is now the most prudent entry point for goods going into the EU to avoid a mountain of paperwork, along with additional and often unpredictable costs.



1146. Cars. An article in Diesel and Eco Car says the UK is on the outside looking in as the switchover timetable to EV is probably mainly going to be determined by what happens in big markets like the EU and the USA. Brexit is said to be only the latest development that may have gradually eroded the UK’s attractiveness for the motor industry. Several low wage East European economies have attracted high levels of automotive investment, with VW investing in Skoda in the Czech Republic and Renault reviving Dacia in Romania. Slovakia now has one of the biggest motor industries in the world in relation to its population.



1145. Travel industry. The Association of British Travle Agents (ABTA) say the number of Britons a employed in the EU travel industry in frontline roles such as travel reps, ski guides or chalet hosts has fallen by more than two-thirds since Brexit. The cost of obtaining visas, work permits and other paperwork was blamed for a sharp reduction in opportunities that particularly hit young Britons hoping to work as “seasonaires” in Europe, the survey of 100 industry executives found.



1144. Mushrooms. Northern Ireland’s £64.5 million mushroom industry could disappear in the next few years due to the loss of free movement of workers post-Brexit, The Northern Ireland Mushroom Growers Association (NIMGA), has warned. The trade body which represents eight of the north’s 10 remaining mushroom farms, said local firms have a vacancy rate of almost 16 per cent and has called on the UK Government to add mushroom pickers to its shortage occupation list (SOL) to address the gap.



1143. Logistics. Brexit is said to be behind the dramatic fall in the UK’s competitiveness in logistics, dropping from an average of sixth place to 19th – according to the World Bank’s 2023 Logistics Performance Index report. The fall in ranking from 2018 to 2023 is associated with Brexit-related changes that contributed to a decline in on-time shipments and efficient customs processes, as well as challenges in tracking shipments, says the report.



1142. Jam. The EU is revising its regulations on jams, jellies and marmalades, defining higher minimum quantities of fruit the products must contain to be considered as jam, which is set to raise costs for British producers exporting to Europe, the world’s largest market for jam. Rosie Jameson, of Rosie’s Preserving School, said, “Commercial-style producers would have to put 15 per cent more fruit in their recipes if they want to export and that would increase costs.” In the last financial year, the UK exported about 10,600 tonnes of jam valued at around £32 million.



1141. Food imports. Ministers have again been warned that European food producers are “not ready” for UK import checks to start later this year, and their introduction will drive food price inflation. From 31 October, any EU business exporting meat or dairy to the UK will need to have an Export Health Certificate (EHC). Shane Brennan of The Cold Chain Federation said, “It’s going to be difficult getting a German vet in Saxony at 3pm on a Friday to sign off product to get it on the ferry so it can be in the UK the next morning. If just 10% of what you sell goes to the UK, chances are with the cost dynamics, your rational business decision in that scenario is to stop serving the UK.”



1140. Eurostar. Residents of Ashford in Kent say the town has “lost its vibrancy”, investment has plummeted and the high street has declined ever since Eurostar stopped running services during the Covid-19 lockdown and have not returned. More than 23,000 people signed a petition calling for international service to be reinstated. A spokesperson from Eurostar said: “Services will not stop at Ebbsfleet or Ashford International stations in 2023, and we cannot make any commitment for another two to three years.”



1139. Healthcare. Huma Therapeutics, a UK based global healthcare company which provides software to help doctors monitor and analyze patient data has criticised the UK’s lack of any ‘progress’ over the last 3-4 years. Founder Dan Vahdat said. “The hope was that with Brexit something should have changed, because the whole idea was that we were going to have more autonomy. But nothing has happened.” Huma are now looking at listing in New York and considering offers from France and Germany.



1138. Economy. US business confidence in the UK has fallen for the third consecutive year, with the fallout from Brexit being cited as one of the main reasons. The Transatlantic Confidence Index, published by British-American Business (BAB) and Bain & Company, found that the US average business confidence rating for the UK dropped to 6.5 from 7.3 out of 10 in 2022. Of the 79 companies surveyed, three quarters said the repercussions of the UK’s exit from the European Union was one of their top three concerns. Other problems included the upcoming increase in corporate tax, stagnant economic growth and a rocky political landscape in the UK.



1137. Mobile phones. The Daily Mail reports that EE customers now have to pay extra to use their mobile phones in 47 European holiday hotspots, including Spain, Greece and Italy. EE’s Pay-as-you-go customers are now charged 70p a minute to make a call, or 30p a text message when in continental Europe. For data the charge is £3 for 500MB. The Mail ruefully points out that “before Brexit, mobile phone providers were banned from charging British customers extra fees when they were in Europe. But these rules no longer apply.”



1136. Firefighters. Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service chiefs have raised some new financial challenges at a recent council meeting. The cost of some life saving equipment has more than doubled with Brexit and the war in Ukraine blamed. A handheld hose branch that cost £300 now costs £800 and the price of firefighter gloves has risen from £42 to £97. Head of logistics and resources Mike Hammond agreed that Brexit had had an impact on costs and also on lead times.



1135. Cheese. Cheesemakers and dairy firms are among the hardest hit UK businesses by additional Brexit-related costs and bureaucracy. Andrew Kuyk, senior policy advisor at the Provision Trade Federation (PTF), said: “There is a whole raft of paperwork that did not exist before Brexit that in itself is adding to cost and complexity.” Phillip Stansfield, MD of The Cornish Cheese Company, based in Launceston, Cornwall, talking of EU trade said: “It is difficult with all the bureaucracy and the paperwork to get our cheese where we used to.”



1134. EU Citizens. The Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) for the UK-EU Citizens’ Rights Agreements has found that the UK Home Office failed to issue certificates for application to the EU settlement scheme in a timely manner in a “significant number” of the 1.73mn cases that required the involvement of caseworkers. The IMA said one of the reasons for the delays was a shortage of caseworkers at the Home Office and said that these delays constituted a “failure to comply” with the post-Brexit withdrawal agreement.



1133. Charity. A charity, Boxes of Hope Cumbria, which sends shoeboxes filled with goodies to Romania at Christmas has been forced to end its campaign because of Brexit. Jonathan Robb, chair of the charity says it’s no longer possible to send the boxes without paying VAT. Mr Robb said: “The cost implication of paying VAT on the perceived value of 10,000 shoe boxes could be up to £40,000, based on boxes being valued at £20 cost, and obviously this makes the campaign financially unviable.”



1132. Ferries. Brittany Ferries is said to be suffering a post-Brexit slump in freight traffic and has yet to see passenger numbers recover to pre-Covid levels. Although passenger numbers between the UK and France and Spain are significantly up on 2022, they still lag behind 2019 which was the last normal year pre-Covid. But freight traffic has seen a decline of about a fifth in total freight volumes carried over the Channel.



1131. Acquisitions. UK in a Changing Europe’s (UKICE) June 2023 Trade Tracker shows an increase in mergers and acquisitions since 2015. Deals in which foreign companies acquire UK businesses in 2021 were the highest since records began in 1987 with a 397% increase over 2015. UK companies investing abroad only increased by 108% over the same period. UKICE attribute this difference to the pound’s weakness, which fell dramatically after the referendum and has never recovered to pre-referendum levels.



1130. Travel Insurance. The Daily Mirror is reminding holidaymakers heading for Europe this summer that after Brexit they should check they have travel insurance and an EHIC (European Health Insurance Card ) or the new UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC). The paper also quotes the UK government website which advises, “An EHIC or GHIC is not a replacement for travel insurance. Make sure you have both before you travel.” Each European healthcare system is different, some countries require payment and some do not accept EHIC of GHIC cards.



1129. AI Regulation. The prime minister, so it is claimed, hopes to make the UK a leader in AI governance, setting global standards to boost Britain’s emerging AI sector. However, after Brexit the UK is ‘locked out’ of key forums between the EU and US such as the Tech and Trade Council (TTC), where AI governance plans are negotiated on a bilateral basis. At a fourth meeting of the TTC last week, the EU, US and Canada have already agreed to develop an AI code of conduct between themselves. The voluntary agreement will be presented to other G7 countries, including Britain later this year.



1128. Welsh funding. The Wrexham Enterprise Hub will close after EU funding came to an end on 31 May. The hub was operated by Town Square Spaces (TownSq) on behalf of Business Wales and was backed by the EU Regional Development Fund. The Welsh Government says EU support has also ended for other enterprise hubs in Newtown, Carmarthen, Anglesey, and Caerphilly but these have secured alternative funding sources.



1127. Eurostar. The Eurostar network has been reduced from a pre-Brexit total of 13 year-round stations to just four: London, Lille, Paris and Brussels. The final Eurostar “Disneyland Express” will depart from St Pancras next week. Services to Rotterdam and Amsterdam will stop for almost a year due to construction work in the Dutch capital. Rotterdam Central is said to not be viable due to post-Brexit constraints on passenger numbers. Direct trains from London to Lyon, Avignon and Marseille have also been dropped.



1126. Felixstowe. Hannah Panting, Operations Manager for Suffolk Port Authority (SPA), says the lack of clarity around post-Brexit checks on imported food is putting them in a “difficult position”. SPA has been told by Defra they will have to check between 1% and 30% of EU food imports from October this year. But it is hard to prepare, Ms Panting says, without knowing the exact percentage. Checks at ports like Felixstowe in Suffolk have already been delayed by 18 months, because of government concerns about the potential burden on businesses.



1125. Travel. Connexion France readers have been spelling out their often stressful experience of the EU’s 90/180 day rule for visitors. The main issue was that time spent at an EU property can be severely limited especially for citizens with other commitments elsewhere in Europe, and the cost and delays in obtaining visas to overcome the rule. One said, “Before Brexit, we used to come over four times a year…[but new rules mean] we can only visit our home in France twice a year. Brittany Ferries must be missing us.” (see 1132 above).



1124. Truckers. A British HGV driver has been fined and temporarily banned from the EU by Dutch authorities after exceeding the 90 day in any 180 day period rule. The case was reported by the Road Haulage Association and picked up by a Polish newspaper. His exclusion also means that he will be unable to go to any country of the EU even for a holiday.



1123. Au Pairs: Bloomberg report that Brexit has “killed” the UK’s au pair industry and comes as the government is desperate to find a way to make child care more affordable and encourage more women back into the workforce. Sandra Landau, the owner of Childcare International, an au pair agency, estimates that the lack of candidates since Brexit means her business has dropped by 95%. The agency no longer has any European au pairs at all.



1122. Car making: A new report from Policy Exchange, a centre-right think tank, argues that targeted government subsidies will not be enough to save the automotive sector, which is “falling behind European competitors in the transition to electric cars” and has been made a “less attractive investment location for non-British manufacturers” by Brexit according to CityAM. Policy Exchange warns against a subsidy race with the US and EU to save the UK automotive industry from problems.



1121. Education: Professor Mario Caccamo, CEO of a Cambridge-based crop-science organisation, says the UK’s reputation as a global centre for science research and higher education has been damaged by the absence of Horizon. International students, particularly those doing PHDs, have been deterred from coming to Cambridge as a result, he claims. Senior pro-vice-chancellor Andy Neely says Cambridge’s lost association with an EU science research programme is having negative impacts.



1120. Strawberries: A family farm in Nottinghamshire that has been producing soft fruits for 75 years say rising costs and difficulty in recruiting pickers has forced it to abandon growing strawberries. Sales director Suzanna Starkey said the family owned business had previously employed up to 140 pickers, mostly from the EU, “But with Brexit it became more difficult and they just did not feel welcome”.



1119. Financial services: The former boss of the London Stock Exchange, Xavier Rolet, has warned that The City faces ‘perpetual decline‘ without major reform. M. Rolet fears that London’s €660 trillion (£563 trillion) clearing market is at risk as Brussels seeks to build “strategic autonomy” to boost its own capital markets. The EU commissioner for financial services Mairead McGuinness, has given EU banks and money managers until June 2025 to shift their clearing from London to the bloc.



1118. Trade: The free trade deal with Australia came into force this week, as it emerges that Boris Johnson personally conceded measuring Australian beef imports by product weight and not by carcass weight equivalent (CWE). The measure enables Australian beef farmers to export more prime off-the-bone beef products, directly competing with the most profitable cuts sole by UK farmers. The difference between the two measurements is significant. Ten tons of prime-cut steak coming into the UK is equal to 13 tons when converted to CWE, filling quotas much faster.



May 2023 ⇓



1117. Retailers: Ann Summers, the retailer specialising in racy lingerie and adult sex toys, discontinued its direct selling business in Ireland last year because “higher operating costs” associated with Brexit made it “uneconomical”, according to the company’s recently filed 2020 accounts. Jacqueline Gold, the former CEO, said that the business faced “a number of challenges arising from the UK leaving the European Union” including the complexity and cost of shipping orders to Ireland.



1116. Trade: The latest S&P Global/CIPS purchasing managers index (PMI) shows the UK’s manufacturing sector contracted for a 10th consecutive month in May, dragged down by steady falls in exports over the last 16 months. Exporters blamed factors including a loss of orders to the US and mainland Europe, and an increasing number of EU clients switching to more local sourcing to avoid the customs barriers, paperwork and delays involved in exporting goods from the UK.



1115. Retailers: The Retail Gazette reports that the Frozen Food retailer Iceland has warned that new government regulations and Brexit red tape are piling up costs for British retailers. An Iceland spokeswoman told The Times that proposed post-Brexit border controls and restrictions on the promotion of foods high in fat, sugar and salt are “driving up costs” for businesses.



1114. Pharmaceuticals: A survey of healthcare industry professionals indicated that sentiment towards Brexit had become more negative for over half of respondents since 2021. They remarked that various aspects of the UK’s healthcare sector have worsened post-Brexit, and over 70% of them thought that the UK would not remain an attractive destination for healthcare research and manufacturing after Brexit.



1113. Holidays: The Telegraph reports that cheap summer holidays are at risk from a shortfall in aircraft maintenance staff. Over a quarter of engineers are expected to retire over the next decade, according to the recruitment consultancy AeroProfessional. MD Sam Sprules said: “The shortfall in aircraft engineers is already impacting output and it’s only going to get worse for the foreseeable future.” Brexit means that aircraft engineer licences issued by the UK authorities are no longer valid in the EU and UK aviation businesses have very restricted access to engineers from Europe.



1112. Fishing: The government has added share fishermen, trawler skippers and deckhands on large fishing vessels to the UK’s shortage occupation list. The FT claim this is a tacit recognition that Brexit has not generated the boom in the sector that had been promised by Boris Johnson and other Leave campaigners. Mike Cohen, CEO of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations said, “Promises were made that did not materialise”.



1111. Education: The UK government is offering foreign teachers £10,000 to work in English schools in an overseas recruitment drive to fill classroom vacancies. In an effort to boost numbers, ministers have started an overseas recruitment initiative under which the rules have changed to more easily recognise maths, science and language-teaching qualifications from Ghana, India, Singapore, Jamaica, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.



1110. Solar panels: Chris Case, CTO of Oxford PV, a spin-off company from Oxford University with patented high-efficiency solar panel technology has told the FT that between continental Europe, the US and the UK, the latter was the “least attractive” location for the factory to manufacture the cells because of a lack of incentives. The company already has a pilot plant near Berlin. The US and EU have announced broad-ranging proposals to boost renewable energy technology in an effort to catch up with China. Case added, “the most attractive markets for listing are things like the Nasdaq and markets in Hong Kong but not so much the UK”.



1109. Trade: An escalating battle over subsidies between the US and China is set to cause serious damage to the UK economy, according to a leaked internal government analysis seen by The Times. The analysis finds that the UK’s economy will suffer more than those of the US, EU and China in the event of a full-blown subsidies war. British manufacturers have calculated that the government would have to spend more than £100bn to match American or European subsidies on items like semiconductor chips.



1108. Chips: The increased cost of potatoes may see some fish and chip shops close, according to Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers. Mark Taylor, the chair of the industry group GB Potatoes, said in 2022 growers had faced a “perfect storm” from Brexit, Covid and soaring energy costs. Although the UK is more than 90% self-sufficient in potatoes, the price of European processing potatoes, which are used to make many of the French fries eaten in the UK, is up 66% on a year ago at £365 a metric tonne, according to Mintec, the commodities data group.



1107. Farming: A survey by agri-tech business Hectare, shows a majority of UK farmers – 67% – said they have no confidence about the future of food production in Britain. Their biggest concerns over the next 12 months, for livestock farmers (26%) and arable farmers (33%) is the the lack of clarity around new government support schemes to replace the ending of the EU’s BPS scheme. Andrew Huxham, co-founder of Hectare, said, “It’s been an uncertain few years for everyone involved. Undoubtedly, many are feeling vulnerable post Brexit now the Basic Payment Scheme is being phased out.”



1106. Fire safety: The leader of the UK Fire Industry Association has described the introduction of the post-Brexit UKCA quality mark as a farce that “makes absolutely zero sense”. Ian Moore, said replacing the EU’s CE mark with the UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) mark “makes zero difference to increasing the quality of the products”. According to The Times, he also added, “It doesn’t add any value whatsoever; it’s just bureaucracy and will cost the fire industry millions of pounds.”



1105. Farming: The NFU has written to the Farming Minister raising concerns about the availability of plant protection products from Europe after Brexit and calling for the system of parallel trade permits to be retained. The system, which allows PP products to be imported provided the UK regulator determines them to be identical in composition to a reference product already authorised in the UK, comes to an end on 30 June 2023. The NFU expect, and are “beginning to see” a loss of availability and choice of PPPs on the market with the risk of price increases.



1104. Chemicals: The UK chemicals sector has warned that attempts to create an affordable post-Brexit regulatory regime for the industry were floundering and risked causing “irreparable damage” to British businesses according to a report in the FT. The UK quit the EU’s “Reach” chemical management system but has repeatedly delayed the introduction of its own arrangements after a government impact assessment discovered it would cost the industry £2bn to duplicate the safety data already held in Brussels.



1103. BTL A lucrative €458mn EU contract with BT to handle sensitive communications between the member states’ governments has been cancelled amid a dispute over potential access to EU secrets following Brexit. The EU commission confirmed that the 8-year contract with a Belgian-based subsidiary of BT has been totally cancelled. Rival operators Telefonica SA and Deutsche Telekom AG had complained about the way the contract had been awarded to a firm from outside the 27-nation bloc.



1102. University funding: The vice-chancellors of the universities of Swansea, Bangor and Cardiff, and the pro vice-chancellor of Aberystwyth, have raised concerns about reduced funding following the UK’s exit from the EU. The leaders warn of “massive job losses and a brain drain of academic talent” because the UK government has reneged on its promise to fully replace EU funding. A committee of Welsh MPs heard that the local economy in university towns and cities across Wales will also suffer as a result of broken UK Government promises and because EU money is now coming to an end.



1101. Lincolnshire farming: A report, prepared for Lincolnshire County Council’s environment and economy committee has said the county’s agriculture sector faces significant labour shortages due to Brexit and the pandemic. The scrutiny panel report warns: “If the labour shortage is not resolved swiftly, shortages threaten to shrink the sector permanently with a chain reaction of wage rises and price increases reducing competitiveness, leading to food production being exported abroad and increased imports.”



1100. Retail: Marks & Spencer reports that an increase in costs as a result of Brexit has created challenges for its Irish food business forcing it to source more products locally. In the retailer’s annual results, M&S said that it would focus on improving profitability in this division in Ireland following “EU border related headwinds”. In 2021, the retailer revealed that it had to cut 800 lines from its stores in Ireland, including items such as free-range chicken and orchids.



1099. Food costs: Researchers at the London School of Economics (LSE) claim British households have paid £7bn since Brexit to cover the extra cost of trade barriers on food imports from the EU. A report estimates the impact of leaving the bloc on UK food prices pushed up bills by an average £250.The cost of food in the UK had rocketed by 25% since 2019, the researchers calculated, but if the post-Brexit trade restrictions were not in place then this increase would be only 17% – nearly a third lower, amounting to £6.95bn.



1098. Sausages: East Yorkshire based sausage maker Cranswick were forced to recruit 400 butchers from the Philippines, after it struggled to find skilled workers. The company said it had faced a third year of “unprecedented disruption.” CEO Adam Couch said the move came at a significant cost but that it had safeguarded service levels when some in the sector had to cut back production due to the ongoing labour shortages.



1097. Cars: The head of supply chain management at Aston Martin Lagonda, Martin Corner, has blamed Brexit for the current crisis in UK car manufacturing. Mr Comer, formerly with Volvo said, “The OEM I worked for at the time didn’t want to appear to speak out at a political choice for the British public… for me even before the referendum it was obvious this could pose an existential threat to the car industry in the UK due to the many versions of Brexit possible… The car industry should have made public clearly the facts and the risk to thousands of jobs.”



1096. Financial services: A draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) on financial services between the UK and EU was published last week. Michael Sholem, a partner at asset fund manager Macfarlane said it would be helpful for the industry to have a “formalised process” to air concerns and disputes but warned the joint regulatory forum will probably only meet on a “semi-annual basis” adding “This structure is clearly no substitute for the level of co-operation and integration that occurred when the UK was part of the EU.”



1095. Gardeners: The Horticultural Trades Association has warned that plans to introduce new post-Brexit border checks will hit the gardening industry, pushing up costs and reducing choice for customers. HTA chair James Barnes said the government’s draft border plan would heap unwanted costs on to plant nurseries, most of which were small businesses. The HTA estimated that the new controls will add £42mn a year in red tape costs for businesses, for no economic gain.



1094. Germany: Germany recorded its highest level of foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, with a surge in UK companies setting up operations to keep a post-Brexit presence in the EU. FDI into Germany totalled €25.3bn last year, up 261% since 2021, according to official figures from Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI). A total of 170 FDI projects originated in the UK, up 21% on 2021. Robert Hermann, chief executive of GTAI, said, “For British companies, it’s particularly important to have a foothold in the EU after Brexit”.



1093. The City: Sir Nigel Wilson, the head of Legal & General, one of the UK’s largest investment companies says that Britain largely missed out on the technology boom of the early 2000s and is now at risk of being left behind once again. London is losing out to rival financial centres as a result of over-regulation and misguided political interventions. Just 6% of pension funds’ total assets were invested in UK stocks, done from 53% in 1997. As a result, British pension funds and insurance companies now own just 4pc of the London stock market, down from 39pc in 2000.



1092. Fruit: According to data released by HMRC, exports of fruit from the UK to the EU, including traditional English apples and pears, have more than halved since Brexit. The decline has been put down to post-Brexit trade barriers, including mandatory health certificates on fresh and chilled food and customs paperwork. In the year to 31 March 2021, the UK sold £248.5mn worth of fruit to the EU. But sales figures dropped to £119m the next year, and have since remained at that level.



1091. Goods labelling: Supermarkets face having to label food as ‘not for EU’ in four different ways under Brexit plans being discussed by the Government, reports The Telegraph. Retailers are expecting to have to place labels denoting food cannot be sent to the EU on not only the individual packs of food, but also on cases carrying products and on supermarket shelves. One senior supermarket boss described it as “gold plating” the so-called Windsor framework.



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.”



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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.”