The kamikaze button that PM would be mad to press

NEVER let a crisis go to waste. That was one of the crucial lessons I learned from 30 years in the finance industry, not to mention a spell in Government.

We are now in a crisis – a very real one. And it is essential that we take the opportunity to restore some sanity to the way we attempt to deal with Europe.

The Government is in turmoil. Brexit negotiations are due to start tomorrow, almost a year to the day since Britain voted to leave the EU. Yet even now some crackpots seem determined to pursue a hard Brexit, with all the economic damage that might entail.

As the months have gone by, it has felt that many in this country have lost their grip on reality. Perhaps the new political landscape will focus minds. I certainly hope so.

It’s true I am a Remainer, but not of the table-thumping kind. As a former chairman of Goldman Sachs’s asset management division – managing more than £600 billion in assets – and as an adviser to George Osborne, I have a decent understanding of what makes the world economy go round.

More than any Brexiteer I understand that, yes, you can do trade with any part of the world. And I understand that we must counter many falsehoods and fallacies. The first of these is the claim that belonging to the EU destroys our ability to trade with the rest of the world. Yet look at the example of Germany. Their No 1 trade partner for 2016? China.

The main things driving trade are: a) being good at it; and b) maintaining relationships with countries that have good domestic growth. Germany achieved these things while remaining at the heart of the EU.

We also face major economic challenges – productivity differ- ences between regions of the UK and the dangerous income and wealth di ff e r e nt ia l s bet ween younger and older generations – that are nothing to do with Europe.

But a single market to do with Europe, and this is my second point. Whatever Brexiteers might say, it is prerequisite to some aspects of successful modern trade.

Today, we produce more cars than we did 30 years ago, even though we don’t have any major car producers. How is this possible?

Yes, we have a highly flexible labour market and, yes, we are integrated with the big German and Japanese producers. But without the single market and low tariffs that go with it, this would have been impossible. To claim that we can do these things better outside the EU is very, very shallow.

We simply don’t have the expertise in our civil service or elsewhere to boost our trade when suddenly faced with new tariffs. We are decisively not one of the top exporters in the world.

My third concern is with the market in skilled labour and students.

It is important we accept substantial numbers of foreign students without pretending they are immi- grants. Theresa May’s inner circle seems to think otherwise. They wish to clamp down – yet that would be preposterous. Anyone who sits down with India knows that, within ten minutes, their officials will raise the restrictions already in place for Indian immigrants, many of whom wish to study here.

The idea that we can have rigid controls on foreign students and then win great trade deals is so out of touch it is embarrassing.

Finally, I would point to the sheer risk involved in putting ourselves outside of the EU. It is enormous.

We’ve already seen i ncomes squeezed because of the weak pound, which, in turn, is clearly due to the self- imposed risks of our national stance on Brexit.

Our so-called ‘golden relationship’ with China is fraying. And as for t alk of t rade deals with New Zealand, I am speechless. It is a country smaller than Greece.

We can still get it right. I know we need a Brexit that benefits the whole of the UK. And I am not alone in wanting a realistic approach. A Survation poll in today’s MoS shows a clear majority in favour of a second referendum once the Government’s negotiations are complete.

Recent events should force Mrs May to listen more broadly. Reach out to the other parties. Take note of what young voters were telling her. The referendum gave her a – weak – mandate for Brexit, not a kamikaze self-destruct button.

We have to put an end to this ridiculous ‘no deal better than a bad deal’ nonsense. Yes, we can trade with any part of the world. But to ignore – or even ditch – what we currently have is plain insanity. Don’t do it.