May warns of threat to UK cohesion from second EU vote
No-deal exit could cost billions, says CBI
PRIME MINISTER Theresa May claimed a second referendum to break the Brexit deadlock could “damage social cohesion” as business leaders warned a no-deal divorce from the European Union could cost billions of pounds to Yorkshire’s economy alone.
Mrs May said she would conduct further talks on the controversial Brexit backstop, and promised to give Parliament “a proper say” in negotiations on the future relationship between the UK and EU. But she refused to rule out a no-deal Brexit, and insisted there was no majority in the House of Commons for a socalled People’s Vote.
The Prime Minister pledged to be more “flexible, open and inclusive” as she reached out to her backbenchers and opposition parties after last week’s historic defeat that saw her Withdrawal Agreement rejected by 230 votes.
The appeal came as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) released damning new figures suggesting that Yorkshire and the Humber could lose out on billions of pounds if Britain leaves the trade bloc without an agreement at the end of March.
The business group estimated that the region would be £12bn a year worse off by 2034, in an economic blow that would hit jobs, livelihoods and living standards.
The shortfall is the equivalent of the Yorkshire region’s annual spend on health services, including all hospitals, GP surgeries and emergency health provision.
Beckie Hart, the regional director for the CBI, said: “If the new approach to finding a Brexit deal continues to be a game of who blinks first, the Yorkshire and Humber economies will pay the price.”
Mrs May was forced back to the Commons yesterday to set out her Brexit plan B, after recent cross-party talks failed to break the parliamentary deadlock, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn refusing to take part while a no-deal departure was still on the table.
In a fresh effort to win support, the Prime Minister offered MPs a guarantee that workers’ rights and environmental safeguards would not be eroded as a result of Brexit, she scrapped the £65 fee for EU nationals wishing to remain in the UK and reiterated her pledge to work with Brussels on the contentious Northern Irish backstop.
But in a rebuke to Mr Corbyn, she refused to eliminate no-deal as an option, insisting that the only way to avoid it was to back her deal or revoke Article 50 and reverse Brexit entirely, which she said she was unwilling to do.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued its own warning about Britain’s Brexit trajectory in its latest World Economic Outlook.
Leaving without a deal could trigger a further slowdown in global growth and hammer domestic output, the influential body said.
Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s new chief economist, told reporters that Britain’s GDP could take a hit of up to eight per cent if the country was forced to trade on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, adding: “We’ve already seen the negative effect of this uncertainty on British investment.”
In its report, the IMF cited a range of factors that could trigger a global slowdown including “a no-deal withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union and a greater-than-envisaged slowdown in China.”
Speaking ahead of Mrs May’s Commons statement, Business Minister Richard Harrington was the latest frontbencher to caution against trading on WTO terms, saying it would be an “absolute disaster” for the UK economy .
Responding to the CBI’s figures, a spokesperson for the Government said: “Our analysis shows that the deal agreed with the EU delivers for the whole of the UK.”