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Conservative Revolution

Britain and the world’s oldest conservative think tank

Conservative Revolution

Britain and the world’s oldest conservative think tank

Bow Group Senior Patron, John Redwood, blasts ‘CATASTROPHICALLY’ wrong CBI during FIERY tirade

Nov 13, 2017 | Archive, News Articles

Mr Redwood dismissed the CBI’s Brexit concerns which spurred the confederation into calling for an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May.

He said: “I’ve chaired and run large industrial companies in the past, traded under WTO  rules absolutely fine.

“I can’t see what they think the problem is, particularly now there is a facilitation of trade general agreement applying to all WTO members which came in February, which deals with many of the details they keep making.

“But we know the CBI is catastrophically wrong on these big issues!”

Speaking to BBC News, the Tory MP said the CBI had already tried to push the United Kingdom into less-than-successful ventures and called on its members to accept the possibility of reversing to WTO rules should the UK fail to strike a final deal with Brussels.

He continued: “They talked us into the exchange rate mechanism which gave a huge recession and headache to their members. They wanted us to go into the euro and told us the City would be greatly damaged if we didn’t.

“Instead the City flourished outside the euro. They’re systematically wrong and they are wrong again.”

The Prime Minister met with both CBI representatives and other European business leaders to discuss their concerns about the future of UK-EU relations.

CBI boss Carolyn Fairbairn said all business leaders reiterated the negativity of a “no deal” scenario.

Following the meeting, BusinessEurope president Emma Mercegaglia said: “Business is extremely concerned with the slow pace of negotiations and the lack of progress only a month before the decisive December European Council.

“Business aims to avoid a cliff edge and therefore asks for a ‘status quo-like’ transitional arrangement with the UK staying in the customs union and the single market, as this will best provide citizens and businesses with greater certainty.”

EU leaders are scheduled to meet in Brussels next month to decide whether enough progress has been made during the Brexit negotiations to move forward to discuss the future trade agreement the UK will have with EU member states after Brexit.

 

Brexit Secretary David Davis said London was “ready and willing” to engage with Brussels “as often and as quickly as needed” to ensure trade talks begin before 2018.

The original article can be found at http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/879030/Brexit-news-CBI-UK-EU-negotiations-WTO-rules-euro-trade-Theresa-May-business-video