‘Life’s problems not going away’

Brexit will not solve concerns over jobs, low wages and migrant labour, a former trade minister has warned.

Lord Price, who quit the Department for International Trade a fortnight ago, said withdrawal from the EU will make Britain “even more disrupted and even more subject to competitive pressures”, according to a report.

He warned that the task of preparing for the UK’s new position outside the bloc risks distracting from fundamental challenges facing the country due to technological change.

Lord Bridges, who quit as a Brexit minister in June, told the House of Lords that Britain should continue to pay into EU budgets during a transitional period preserving existing arrangements “as far as possible” until the end of 2020, to avoid disrupting business.

According to reports, Lord Price said he regarded last year’s referendum vote for EU withdrawal as “a symptom of people’s concerns about their dayto-day problems”, including the loss of jobs to digitalisation, the outsourcing of labour, low wages and migrant labour.

But he added: “Brexit will not solve those problems . . . I think the country is going to be even more disrupted.

“All of these things don’t get better with Brexit; in fact, if anything, they get worse.

“No outcome from Brexit is going to solve those fundamental problems.”

Lord Price: Brexit will not fix day-to-day problems