Dead deal moves bosses closer to second referendum

DOMINIC Raab isn’t the only one who detests the doomed Brexit deal he negotiated. Noone in business likes it much either.

While it would give the City and goods exporters some assurance that they’ll be able to access European markets, service industries outside finance are left hanging in the wind.

The proposed deal would see British industry suffering the inconveniences of exiting the EU without the much-vaunted Brexiteer benefits of being free to hatch trade deals elsewhere.

But, and it’s a but as big as the

Brexit battlebus, the withdrawal agreement would offer us one great reason to cheer. It would avoid us tumbling out of the EU next March with no transition period in place.

This so-called cliff-edge scenario is what scares business people the most.

While big companies in the UK have been carrying out hard Brexit preparations, nobody knows how much. As for smaller firms, and our trading partners in Europe, anecdotal evidence suggests most have been adopting a head-in-thesand approach.

Only 14% of Institute of Directors members say they could cope with a no-deal exit.

So, the potential for utter chaos in the days and months after a cliff-edge departure is huge.

Under this deal, in the unlikely event it goes through, businesses will have at least 21 months to adapt to the new realities.

It’s hard to overemphasise how important that is.

Here’s an example. There’s still no clarity on whether EU regulators will accept UK-made medicines which haven’t undergone tests on EU soil. So, British firms will have to build