Days to Brexit deadline: 74
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Today on the Trail: Party leaders make their pitch to the U.K.’s biggest business lobby — but their messages fall flat.
What’s happening? Britain’s business leaders were left unimpressed by the country’s political leaders at a major industry conference Monday, caught between a Brexit most of them don’t want and a firebrand socialist they fear.
None of the leaders escaped criticism. “These guys should be hanging their heads in shame for the last three years of nonsense that’s gone on,’’ Phil Smith, non-executive chairman of IQE Plc, a maker of semi-conductor products, told Bloomberg’s Joe Mayes. “If that was in business, most of them would be gone by now.”
In an unusual move, Boris Johnson, a Conservative prime minister, announced plans to cancel a 2020 tax cut, saying the freeze would allow the Treasury to spend £6 billion ($7.8 billion) on public services. And while Johnson conceded that many at the event would not have voted to leave the EU, he urged them nonetheless to back his plan to “Get Brexit Done.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn then took to the stage, telling the room he is not “anti-business” even as he laid out plans to nationalize privatized utilities and rail companies. Later, Jo Swinson of the Liberal Democrats said her party is the “natural party of business” because it wants to keep the U.K. in the EU.
Corbyn’s message didn’t necessarily hit home. “Corbyn is definitely worse,” said Richard Clarke, commercial director of O’Donovan Waste Disposals, a London-based construction and demolition waste company.
CBI Director General Carolyn Fairbairn told Bloomberg TV the “main priority” for business would be a deal that includes frictionless trade with the EU, offering “a great deal for services.” That leaves a clear gap between the CBI’s position and the direction of travel of Johnson’s Brexit policy, which envisages a more distant U.K.-EU relationship after Brexit.
“No business is under any illusion that Brexit gets done just because the Withdrawal Agreement is over. It doesn’t,” Fairbairn said. It was a view echoed by Ian Wright, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation. “There’s not enough time,’’ he told Joe Mayes. “You can’t do a trade deal of any value in that period.”
Today’s Must-Reads
- Conservative supporters need not worry, Tim Bale writes for Bloomberg Opinion. If history is any guide their party’s new-found enthusiasm for public spending pledges won’t last long, says Bale, who is professor of politics at Queen Mary University, London.
- “No one should think it’s going to be all over anytime soon,” write Anand Menon and Catherine Barnard of the UK in a Changing Europe, saying that Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done” mantra is “profoundly misleading.”
- Two contrasting takes today on grassroots Labour activism: for Vice, Ruby Lott-Lavigna reports from inside Momentum’s London HQ; meanwhile, in the pages of the Telegraph, Robert Taylor brands the group’s digital campaign “ a terrifying insight into Labour’s deranged agenda.”
On the Markets | The pound rallied to a six-month high against the euro and strengthened versus all of its Group-of-10 peers. Sterling rose as Johnson announced that every Conservative candidate backs his Brexit plan, raising hopes it would pass Parliament if voters return a Conservative majority government on Dec. 12.
Breaking News | The Liberal Democrats and SNP have lost a High Court challenge against broadcaster ITV (LON:ITV) over its decision to exclude their party leaders from a televised election debate.The ruling means Tuesday nights Johnson-Corbyn debate will go ahead as scheduled.
2020 Vision | The outlook for the U.K. economy in 2020 depends critically on the result of the general election on Dec. 12, Bloomberg Economics says today in its annual survey of the year ahead. Our economists’ central forecast for 2020 sees a growth rebound, below-target inflation and higher interest rates — based on the presumption that Johnson wins a new mandate next month.
Breakup Britain | Many Leave voters think the breakup of the United Kingdom is a price worth paying for Brexit, according to a Sky News poll. Some 41% of respondents who backed Brexit told Sky they would accept Scottish independence, with just 18% judging it a step too far. There was less support for Welsh independence or Northern Ireland joining the Republic of Ireland.
Property Boom | Demand for office space in the U.K. capital is holding up even as the country is mired in political uncertainty. With some big real estate deals in the pipeline and the potential for new construction in the near future, industry insiders are surprised by their own optimism, Bloomberg’s Jack Sidders reports.
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