Stop moaning about Brexit, Theresa tells business chiefs
THERESA May will tell business leaders today to cheer up about Brexit and embrace the ‘huge opportunities’ ahead.
The Prime Minister will use a speech to the Confederation of British Industry to urge firms to look forward with ‘rational optimism’ to life after the UK’s exit from the EU.
She will insist that after a decade of recovering from the financial crash, the next ten years will be ‘a new chapter in the story of the British economy’.
Speaking before the launch of the Government’s industrial strategy white paper later this month, she also will pledge that there will be no return to 1970s- style state interventionism.
Mrs May will say: ‘There are huge opportunities ahead. Making the most of them will demand hard work, imagination and commitment.
‘We cannot, and will not, try to make a plan for every corner of our economy. We believe in the free market and won’t attempt to shield the economy from market forces.
‘So we will have to make strategic decisions about where the Government can and where it cannot best support key sectors of our economy. Such an approach avoids the failed state interventionism of the 1970s.
‘But it also learns from the past failures of governments to give sectors and places across the country the longterm support they need to cope with economic change and compete in a changing global marketplace.’
Mrs May will also make clear that a post-Brexit transitional period would avoid a ‘ cliffedge’ exit. But she will say the UK should also be able to ‘develop our relationships with countries outside the EU in new ways, including through our own trade negotiations’.
labour leader Jeremy Cor- byn will tell the same conference the threat of Brexit without a trade deal is potentially a ‘nightmare scenario’.
He will also use his speech to urge employers to act against sexual harassment in the workplace, saying ‘ business has an essential role to play’.
CBI director-general Carolyn Fairbairn warned yesterday the impact of Brexit on business is becoming ‘very real’.
Calling for the Government to make its industrial strategy a priority, she claimed uncertainty is continuing to affect the economy. She added: ‘We can’t afford to let Brexit distract from the long- term action so badly needed. What’s at stake is the UK’s future in a global economy redefined by artificial intelligence and automation. Brexit must not be allowed to crowd this out.’
Meanwhile, CBI president Paul Drechsler said Cabinet infighting over Brexit must end or it will cause economic damage that will hit the poorest hardest.
He added: ‘The Prime Minister’s speech in Florence [set- ting out Britain’s position on Brexit] was seismic.
‘But with the best will in the world, for all that to be built on and not lost, what we don’t need is confusion every other week about matters to do with this agenda.’
Mr Drechsler is expected to tell the lobby group’s annual conference today that current Brexit negotiations resemble ‘a prime-time soap opera’, arguing that it is time for government and business to unite behind ‘a clear strategy’.