The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Brexit secretary under pressure to apologise
Dominic Raab says it is easy for firms to blame Brexit rather than take responsibility for their failures
Dominic Raab is under pressure to apologise for accusing businesses of using Brexit as cover for their own failures.
The Brexit secretary said it was easy for firms like John Lewis to point the finger at politicians “rather than to take responsibility for their own situation”.
Fife MP Stephen Gethins said shifting the blame on to firms is a disgrace, as he called for the Home Counties MP to say sorry for his “crass comments”.
Mr Raab was asked by the BBC about department store John Lewis’ references to Brexit when revealing it had seen a 99% drop in half-year profits.
He replied: “I think it’s probably rather easy at this moment in time for any business that isn’t doing rather well to point to Brexit.”
Mr Raab said economic growth and real wages were “accelerating”.
“I don’t doubt that some of the uncertainty around these negotiations will have an impact on business, that’s why we are putting all our energy into getting the good deal we want with our EU friends and partners.
“All I am just gently saying is that it’s rather easy for a business to blame Brexit and the politicians rather than take responsibility for their own situation.”
Mr Gethins, the SNP’s Europe spokesman, said: “This is yet another example of the Tories trying to make excuses for a Brexit mess of their own making.
“They think they can inflict serious damage on our economy with impunity – and then try to shift the blame onto others.”
In 2016, the International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told party activists that Britain was “too lazy and too fat” with businessmen preferring “golf on a Friday afternoon” to hard work.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said warnings the UK would not pay all of its £39 billion divorce bill were a “statement of fact”, not a threat.
He said it was “unlikely” there would be no deal but the EU could not “cherry pick” the parts of the negotiations that had gone well if that happened.