Manufacturers stockpile goods as MPs brace for Brexit debate

With Britain’s March 2019 Brexit date looming, manufacturers in the United Kingdom are taking action, stockpiling goods as they prepare to face the prospect of queues at Britain’s ports.

Businesses fear imports of raw materials will dry up in the event of a no-deal Brexit, or rise in price when Britain leaves the EU should a deal go ahead.

In response, they are making as many goods as possible and piling them up in storage, according to a quarterly survey from the EEF, the manufacturers’ trade body.

The EEF said this precautionary stockpiling had allowed companies to maintain production levels despite a sharp drop in export orders over recent months.

Last week the governor of the Bank of England warned against a no-deal Brexit, saying a majority of Britain’s businesses were unprepared.

Prime Minister Theresa May is facing another challenging week in her battle to save her Brexit plan as the final countdown to the crucial Commons vote on Dec 11 begins.

The first issue facing May this week will be the intensifying demands for the government to release the full legal advice on the Withdrawal Agreement.

On Tuesday, MPs will begin five days of debate on the Brexit agreement ahead of the Commons vote.

May could also go head-to-head with Jeremy Corbyn in a televised debate ahead of the Commons vote.

Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer has said if the deal is rejected, Labour will table a no-confidence motion in an attempt to force a general election.

The likelihood of a second referendum has risen also because Labour’s potential call for a general election is seen as implausible. It would require the backing of Conservative and Democratic Unionist party MPs, who would be faced with the risk of losing power to Corbyn.

Ever since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, a hard core of campaigners has pushed for a second referendum to overturn the result, including the former Labour prime minister Tony Blair.

With scores of Conservative MPs saying they are ready to vote against May’s deal, Labour faces growing scrutiny of its stance. Apart from some die-hard Brexiters, MPs are desperate to avoid a no-deal scenario.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor and party leader Corbyn’s closest ally, suggested last week that Britain would “inevitably” end up holding a second referendum.

Likewise, Starmer told Sky News on Sunday that a “People’s Vote” would be “far better than this deal”. Such comments are music to the ears of Labour’s more than 500,000 members, since an overwhelming majority are opposed to Brexit.

The Financial Times quoted a senior Labour figure, who said: “Interestingly, Keir Starmer is in the same position as Jeremy’s office, which is they want to hold strong and wait for exactly the right moment before openly backing a second referendum. That moment is not yet.”