Now top Remain boss joins call to get out of EU as soon as possible
GLOBAL businessman Sir Martin Sorrell yesterday added his weight to calls on Theresa May to get a move on with Brexit.
The pro-Remain multimillionaire advertising chief said business people now want uncertainty ended as soon as possible – although he conceded the process of leaving the EU was complex and would “last a long time”.
He spoke as other Brexit campaigners renewed their calls for swift progress.
Mrs May, who returned to the UK yesterday from her Swiss walking holiday, has said only that she will not invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty – kick-starting up to two years of formal Brexit talks – until next year.
Sir Martin, whose Londonbased WPP owns advertising agencies around the world and employs more than 190,000 people in more than 100 countries, spoke as his company posted pre-tax profits up nearly 16 per cent to £690million in the first half of the year.
Delighted
Sir Martin admitted the UK had “perked up” in July after the referendum result.
Asked if he wanted Brexit talks to start as soon as possible by invoking Article 50, Sir Martin said: “Basically, yes.”
He added: “What business wants is things resolved as quickly as possible. British business wants certainty and resolution while the Government wants to string it out.
“The process around Article 50 and withdrawal will last a long time when, from a business point of view, people want it to be done quickly.”
Jayne Adye, director of Get Britain Out, said: “We are absolutely delighted Sir Martin Sorrell has finally seen the light with his support for leaving the EU. Better late than never. Since we voted to leave the EU business has been booming, with optimism now replacing Project Fear.
“He is another one of the many business leaders who have now woken up to the possibility of global trade, rather than a little EU backdoor, and with many countries already knocking on our door asking for trade deals, we won’t have to worry.
“Sir Martin, your Get Britain Out T-shirt is in the post.”
Outgoing Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: “We now need the Government to get on with it.”
Ukip MP Douglas Carswell said there was “growing anxiety” about court and Parliamentary bids to thwart Brexit as well as attempts to keep Britain in the EU’s failing single market.
He added: “To counter those anti-democratic forces, Mrs May now needs to start putting the foot down and accelerating Brexit.”
Pro-Brexit Labour MP Kate Hoey said Article 50 must be invoked by January “at the latest” and that Britain must sign no more EU directives unless they were rules it would probably want outside the EU anyway.
Separately, Finnish president Sauli Niinisto voiced hopes in Helskini for “close and strong” UK-EU relations after Brexit.
He insisted Britain would still be “an important partner for the EU and Finland”.
He warned Britain’s vote showed how people across the EU often had “little trust in their own leaders let alone the EU” and that this could threaten the bloc’s survival if it took root.
He also warned the eurozone debt crisis was poised to resurface and said the EU seemed to have reached an impasse on various issues.
The EU’s “feeble” response to the migrant crisis was an example of how the bloc was “undermining its own future in the eyes of its citizens”, he added.
SIR Martin Sorrell has added his voice to the growing chorus calling on the Government to make sure Brexit happens as swiftly as possible. The further we get from the day of the referendum the harder it is to understand why our politicians are still dithering.
As Sir Martin says getting the process over and done with would reduce the uncertainty facing business. Companies hate unpredictability and many will put off big decisions about the future until Brexit has been finalised. If the process drags on for years – as Chancellor Philip Hammond has previously suggested it might – this would lead to a damaging period of inertia.
It would also prevent us from making use of our independence to build new sources of prosperity. We have countries queueing up to do trade deals but we cannot bring any of them into force until we have left.
There is nothing to be gained from waiting. We know what our red lines in the negotiation are: the full return of border controls, the end of Brussels laws taking primacy over our own and no more huge membership payments.
We also know what we are hoping to get, namely a deal that allows us to continue trading freely with our European partners. But this is as much in their interest as it is in ours. And in many other areas – counter-terror operations being a prime example – we will continue to work closely together.
Article 50, the formal mechanism by which countries can leave the EU, contains provision for two years of negotiating time once it has been triggered. Any remaining issues could be sorted in less than that. Prime Minister Theresa May needs to get on with it.