Failure to strike deal with EU ‘could cost 500,000 jobs’

A NO-DEAL Brexit could result in half a million fewer jobs in the UK, with nearly £50bn in investment lost across the country, a report commissioned by the mayor of London has found.

The report also shows that London could suffer much less from Brexit than the rest of the country — increasing geographic inequalities across the UK.

There’s no mention of Northern Ireland, or the Republic, in the study by Cambridge Econometrics.

Financial and professional services could be the hardest hit, with 119,000 fewer jobs nationally, the report claims.

Other sectors reported include science and technology (92,000 fewer jobs), construction (43,000 fewer jobs) and the creative sector (27,000 fewer jobs).

“As expected, the more severe the type of Brexit, the greater the negative impact will be on London and the UK,” the report stated.

“The results show that Brexit will not only reduce the size of the UK economy, compared to what may have happened if the UK remained in the Single Market and Customs Union, but also put it on a slower long-term growth trajectory.”

Even softer Brexit scenarios, like the UK remaining in the Single Market, but leaving the Customs Union after a transition period, could still result in 176,000 fewer jobs across the country.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Britain would be shunted into a ‘lost decade’ of low investment with hundreds of thousands of lost jobs if it fails to agree a trade deal with the EU.

“Ministers are fast running out of time to turn the negotiations around,” he said.