Fix this NOW or jobs will be lost, warn businesses

EXASPERATED businesses have told MPs to stop ‘ chasing rainbows’ and resolve the Brexit crisis.

Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said politicians had spent ‘three years going round in circles’.

He warned jobs and investment were at stake if Parliament did not find a way forward, adding: ‘No one would run a business like this – and it’s no way to run a country.’

Addressing the BCC annual conference in London, he said: ‘Throughout this process we have engaged with individuals from across the political spectrum, who have listened… but as a collective, they have failed to agree a future path.

‘Whether led by Government

or by Parliament, they must now act to stem the corrosive damage of ongoing uncertainty.’

However, he refused to back any single option after MPs voted against every alternative to Theresa May’s deal that was put to them. Dr Marshall said: ‘We are not endorsing any one of them. But we in business must make it clear that our elected representatives cannot keep chasing rainbows.’

Many other attendees said they were fed up with the ‘crazy’ events in Westminster.

Charlotte Travers, of marketing agency SocialB, said it seemed the Government had no ‘proper strategy’, while Kevin Rogers, of insurer Paycare, said: ‘I would take any deal. Anything that gives us some certainty.’

Yesterday Mrs May’s de-facto deputy David Lidington told the conference he understood frustration among businesses and urged MPs to back her deal.

‘No way to run a country’