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The next UK government must negotiate an improved trading relationship with the EU as businesses face ever-higher costs from Brexit, one of the country’s biggest corporate lobby groups has warned. The British Chambers of Commerce said that tighter migration rules and rising costs and complexity of exports were throttling investment and growth at home. “We urgently need to get a better trading relationship with our closest neighbour,” said BCC director-general Shevaun Haviland.
A constant addition of new EU rules was making life ever-harder for exporters and their suppliers, she told the FT. “We thought that after year one things would just get easier for people as they worked out what the problems were, but actually the changes just kept coming.” The concerns are part of a rising chorus of criticism about the impact of Brexit on businesses ahead of the UK’s general election on July 4. Both Labour and the ruling Conservatives have avoided focusing on Brexit, which is still seen as divisive among voters.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, whose party has a significant lead in opinion polls, is set to pursue closer trade and defence ties with the EU if he becomes prime minister. Starmer wants to “deepen” the UK’s relationship with the bloc, but will rule out rejoining the single market or allowing freedom of movement between Britain and EU, senior Labour figures told the FT last month. A majority of companies exporting to the EU told the BCC that selling into the bloc had become harder during 2023, with new border checks on plant and animal products also imposing punitive new costs, particularly on small firms...
more at FT