Business tells politicians to back EU deal

SCOTS business chiefs have urged politicians to back Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

They said ‘uncertainty’ surrounding the UK’s departure from the EU was damaging the economy – and that having a deal was a priority.

The Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) pledged its support for the Prime Minister’s Brexit blueprint, as did the Freight Transport Association – despite the Scottish Government insisting that it will not support the deal, with Nationalist MPs set to vote against it in the House of Commons.

SCDI director of policy and public affairs Matt Lancashire told Holyrood’s culture, tourism, European and external affairs committee yesterday: ‘Having no deal is just disastrous for the Scottish economy. The deal we have is something we need to gather support around’

The General Medical Council said it could not back the deal officially due to the ‘political’ aspect – but voiced support for the two-year transition period.

Claire Slipper of NFU Scotland and Alistair Sims, director of Universities Scotland, also spoke of the uncertainty surrounding Brexit – and insisted moves must be taken to allow businesses, students and workers to move on.

Scottish Tory finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said: ‘If we want an orderly Brexit which ensures things can more or less continue as normal, the Prime Minister’s deal delivers that.

‘A no-deal scenario will bring only chaos and mass disruption. We need to get behind this deal.’

During First Minister’s Questions yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon came under fire after she refused to sign a pledge to keep the UK out of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Interim Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw accused her of ‘deceiving’ Scottish voters, claiming her plan would be to put an independent Scotland into the EU, thereby forcing fishing communities back into the CFP.

But Miss Sturgeon insisted some fishermen believe the UK Government is ‘selling out’ the industry over Brexit.

The warnings against a nodeal Brexit came as the SNP, Labour, Greens and Liberal Democrats released a joint statement saying they will vote against Mrs May’s deal at Holyrood on Wednesday.

Nationalist MSP Tom Arthur said: ‘People should not be forced to accept the Prime Minister’s false choice of a no deal or a bad deal Brexit – both will cause significant damage. ’

‘A duty to do what is right for our country’ ‘Future of freedom and prosperity’

LIAM Fox will today issue a stinging rebuke to Tories who oppose the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal amid claims that as many as 100 of the party’s MPs could now vote against it.

The International Trade Secretary will accuse them of not facing up to the ‘tough choices’ that Theresa May has had to make in the negotiations.

And he will warn Conservative MPs that they have an ‘abiding duty’ to act in the best interests of the country.

Dr Fox will become the latest Cabinet Brexiteer to come out in support of Mrs May’s agreement ahead of the meaningful vote on December 11. The Mail revealed yesterday that Andrea Leadsom is also backing the deal.

But the scale of the task was illustrated last night by reports that 100 Tory MPs are now preparing to vote against the agreement, a number which would appear to give it little chance of passing the Commons.

Matthew Offord became the latest to say he planned to vote against the Prime Minister’s plan. The MP for Hendon said he ‘could not support a deal’ which handed over £39billion ‘without certainty of a future trading relationship.’ According to unofficial estimates and a list collated by the website Buzzfeed, that took the number of Tory opponents to 100. However, in a Daily Mail survey of those on the list earlier this week, several indicated that they were still undecided.

Mrs May did receive a boost last night when the Remainer Tory MP Antoinette Sandbach said she would back the deal. She said that, while the deal was not perfect, ‘no one could have done better’ and voting against it would be ‘hugely destructive’. The latest developments came as: ■Mrs May launched a frantic bid to sell her Brexit deal to world leaders at the G20 summit in Argentina;

May loyalist Rory Stewart tweeted: ‘Thank goodness sense is beginning to build and support is growing for what is in the end the only sensible solution’;

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned that more than half of UK firms were completely unprepared for a no-deal Brexit; ■Security Minister Ben Wallace said quitting the EU without a deal would leave the UK more vulnerable to terrorist attack; ■The PM’s de-facto deputy David Lidington warned that a second Brexit referendum would run the risk of the ‘radicalisation’ of right wing voters in the UK; ■Justine Greening laid out plans for a new Brexit referendum by the end of May, in just 22 weeks time; ■Mrs May’s Brexit adviser Olly Robbins has drawn up a secret blueprint to let Britain unilaterally abandon guarantees over the Irish border. A No 10 spokesman said it would not comment on leaks. ■Environment Secretary Michael Gove revealed that French President Emmanuel Macron was ‘speechless with rage’ over agreements between the EU and UK on fishing post-Brexit.

Mr Fox will today offer his full backing to the Prime Minister when he tells an audience that though her deal won’t please everyone, it provides a ‘firm and stable base’ on which to leave the EU.

He is due to outline Britain’s global trade role, saying it is ‘time to raise our sights, and acknowledge there is a world beyond Europe, and a time beyond Brexit’.

Dr Fox was reported to be among a group of five Cabinet ministers seeking to tweak Mrs May’s Withdrawal Agreement before MPs vote on December 11. In his speech he will appeal for unity, saying: ‘Now is the time to set aside our differences, and lead our country to a future of freedom, success, and prosperity. In politics we cannot always have the luxury of doing what we want for ourselves, but we have an abiding duty to do what is right for our country.’

News that she has won over Antoinette Sandbach is a significant win for Mrs May because she is one of Parliament’s prominent Remainers and it suggests she may win over others.

Miss Sandbach said: ‘The Prime Minister has done remarkable work putting together a compromise as good as this. The agreement does not give any one group everything they want, but it does have something for everyone.’

Mrs Leadsom’s support suggests backing from the other side of the Brexit spectrum.

Yesterday, arch-Brexiteer Mr Gove offered his support, telling the Commons that the Government’s deal on fisheries had caused ‘anger’ in Paris as he said Britain would regain control of its seas.

He said: ‘As an independent coastal state we will be able to decide who comes into our waters and on what terms.’

Mrs May will become the first British PM ever to visit Buenos Aires. She was stung by criticism from Donald Trump this week, who said her proposals were ‘a good deal for the EU’.

But Downing Street said Mrs May would now use the meeting of leaders from the world’s biggest economies to stress the fact her deal would allow the UK to develop an ‘independent trade policy’.

Mr Lidington warned that with former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson now a ‘standard bearer’ for many on the far right, there could be an ‘ugly’ reaction to a second referendum.

Such a move could be seen as an ‘attempt by the political elite to set aside a democratic verdict’, he warned. He added: ‘That would pose a risk of a radicalisation of a lot of those people into more populist positions.’

FIRST the good news: the economy is still going strong. Now the bad: year-on-year growth means the foreign aid budget will grow even bigger.

The aid ratchet put into law by David Cameron means spending is up £673million and has now passed £14billion for the first time.

From the NHS to our threadbare Armed Forces, we do not lack for domestic good uses for this fortune.

For all the assurances from ministers that every penny is spent wisely, the evidence suggests even more is being frittered away on pointless projects and in countries rich enough to look after their own.

Take China, a military superpower on course to boast the world’s largest economy in little over a decade, where British taxpayers are funding a £58,000 project to conserve the giant salamander. A creature worthy of protection, no doubt, but surely the Chinese government can stump up for that?

Or India, with the world’s fastest-growing economy, where £23,000 was spent on conserving the Bengal bustard.

But with so much of (other people’s) money swilling around Whitehall, it’s no wonder bureaucrats have trouble spending it wisely. AS many who have lost someone close to them will attest, the burden of grief is often compounded by the practicalities of organising – and paying for – the funeral.

At their time of bereavement, few families will have the energy or desire to shop around for good value and may – entirely naturally – feel that doing so would insult the memory of the deceased.

The result, as a troubling report by the Competition and Markets Authority suggests, is they are being preyed upon by funeral providers.

The regulator found that in the past decade, costs have risen by three times the rate of inflation, meaning the average bill is now more than £4,000 – and has rightly launched an investigation.

If it is found to have exploited customers’ misery to make unreasonable profits, this £2billion-a-year industry merits the most severe repercussions.