City leaders urge Tory MPS to dump ‘humiliating’ agreement

MORE than 200 chief executives and entrepreneurs today call on Conservative MPS to vote down Theresa May’s Brexit deal, describing it as “the worst of all worlds”.

In a letter, seen by The Daily Telegraph, business leaders who run medium-sized companies say Mrs May’s deal represents “the greatest act of national humiliation in this proud nation’s recent history”.

The letter, organised by John Longworth, the former director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, is signed by members of the Alliance of British Entrepreneurs including Tim Martin, the boss of pub giant Wetherspoon, and John Moulton, the veteran venture capitalist, and will be delivered to all Tory MPS next week.

Mrs May’s deal has been presented by No 10 as a boon for business. Yesterday the Confederation of British Industry welcomed the deal, saying it “moves the UK one step away from the nightmare precipice of no deal and the harm it would cause to communities across the country”. But the letter, signed by the heads of firms that have a combined turnover of more than £2billion a year and employ at least 45,000 people nationwide, says that the deal “offers the EU carte blanche to impose uncompetitive and deliberately punitive policies on the UK, selling British business down the river”.

They tell Tory MPS that they “do not believe the Prime Minister’s own tests are met” for a true Brexit and are “desperately worried” about the consequences of her deal, such as staying “locked in a customs union”.

Their preferred alternative is to leave the EU without a deal and use the “ready-made framework for co-operation” set by the World Trade Organisation. They acknowledge “that there may be considerable short-term turbulence” but declare themselves “confident” that the UK “will be able to steer through any short-term upheaval to a prosperous future”.