Yahoo Finance CBI: Threatening no-deal Brexit like saying 'I’ll shoot my foot off'
Threatening to leave the European Union without a deal is akin to saying “if you don’t do what I want, I’ll shoot my foot off,” according to the head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the country’s largest business group.
“I’ve never felt it was a particularly credible negotiating threat,” said Carolyn Fairbairn in an interview with Bloomberg.
While Boris Johnson, the favourite to succeed Theresa May as prime minister, has said that he is “not aiming for a no-deal outcome,” he has insisted that the threat of leaving without a deal is a “vital” negotiating tactic.
The two other top contenders, foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt and environment secretary Michael Gove, have also said they would consider leaving the EU without a deal.
Fairbairn also warned that a no-deal Brexit was not just about “short-term disruption,” saying that there has been too much focus on “empty shelves and poor availability of lettuces.”
READ MORE: Firms told to prepare for no-deal Brexit under next Tory prime minister
“It almost trivialises it,” she said. “For me, the real risk of no-deal is it triggers a serious decline in our competitiveness for the long-term.”
The CBI chief also said that the threat of a no-deal Brexit was having an impact in the present moment.
“It’s not that the Brexit uncertainty and fear of no deal is going to have an impact in the future. It’s having it right now,” Fairbairn said.
Her comments came as the head of another business group, the Institute of Directors, said that businesses should step up no-deal Brexit planning because they cannot trust politicians to solve the crisis.
“Business can have no absolute reassurance that an agreement will be reached, particularly given the commitment of some Conservative leadership candidates to leaving the EU in October with or without a deal,” Edwin Morgan said in a statement.
