BMW pleads with Prime Minister to rule out no-deal Brexit

The chairman of BMW has warned Boris Johnson no-one would win from a no-deal Brexit and urged the new Prime Minister to listen to business.

Harald Krueger said leaving the EU without a deal would be “lose-lose” for the UK and industry.

Mr Krueger advised Mr Johnson: “Listen to the economy and listen to the people. He needs to be in a dialogue with business.

“I would visit Johnson to tell him this,” he added.

BMW warned earlier this year that if the UK leaves the EU without a deal it would threaten production of the Mini which is produced at its Cowley plant, near Oxford, where it employs 4,500 people.

BMW is one of a number of car companies that have expressed concern about leaving the EU without a trade deal.

This week, Vauxhall-owner PSA said it could move all production from its Ellesmere Port site, where it builds the Astra, if Brexit makes it unprofitable.

Such a move would put 1,000 jobs at risk.

BMW closed its Cowley plant for a month in April after planning for the original Brexit deadline of 29 March.

However, last month it committed to begin building its new electric Mini at the site in November.

In his previous role as foreign secretary, Mr Johnson last year allegedly used an expletive when discussing business concerns about a hard Brexit at an event for EU diplomats.

When pressed about using the word, Mr Johnson refused to deny the claim and said he may have “expressed scepticism about some of the views of those who profess to speak up for business”.

Mr Johnson has said the UK will leave the EU by 31 October, with or without a deal.

Recent figures reveal investment in the UK car industry has fallen sharply to £90m in the first six months of this year compared to £347m in the first half of 2018.

The Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders said, however, that companies’ spending on contingency plans for a possible no-deal Brexit had now reached £330m.

Mr Krueger made his comments after BMW reported a 28% drop in pre-tax profits for the second quarter of the year.

The firm attributed this to investing heavily in electric car production and said it still expected to hit its financial targets for 2019.

Harland and Wolff staff lock themselves inside as shipyard put up for sale

Workers at Harland and Wolff shipyard locked the gates yesterday and called on Boris Johnson to nationalise the site amid fears over its future.

Protesters at the site in Belfast said that they would refuse to reopen the gates until their jobs were guaranteed. Harland and Wolff, which has about 130 staff and specialises in marine and energy engineering, was put up for sale by Dolphin Drilling, its Norwegian parent company, which filed for bankruptcy last month.

Trade union leaders have called on the prime minister to intervene, urging Boris Johnson to help to save the yard by taking it into public hands. Susan Fitzgerald, the regional co-ordinating officer for the Unite union, said: “Mr Johnson will this week make his first visit to Northern Ireland as PM, and Unite is again calling on his government to nationalise Harland and Wolff.”

The shipyard had tens of thousands of staff when it was a hive of production a century ago. It was the site of the Titanic’s construction.

Joe Passmore, a steelworker, told BBC News: “It was always assumed the management and politicians would come up with a plan but so far they’ve failed, but we aren’t prepared to see this place fail when we know it can be viable and vibrant.”

Picture: Rebecca Black/PA

Boris after Brexit please focus on business rate crisis

As Boris Johnson takes over the helm as the next British Prime Minister, the Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, and John Webber of Colliers International call for the Government to finally address the “Business Rates” crisis

Real estate firm Colliers International and Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce are calling on new Prime Minister Boris Johnson to make tackling business rates a top priority.

John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers, says  Johnson must take action and understand the negative impact the 2017 Revaluation process has had on UK companies.

Some companies, particularly retailers in Central London, have seen their business rates rise at unprecedented levels, while others, who should have seen their rates bills fall, suffered from the policy of transition and are still paying bills higher than they should be, or can afford.

Webber said, “The move to four-yearly revaluations is all very well, as is the move to link business rates rises to CPI as opposed to RPI increase.

“But in themselves they will not solve the crisis. Nor will the decision to give business rates relief to the smaller traders do anything to help those big retail chains that are suffering.

“It’s the Debenhams, the House of Fraser, the M&S’s that are either on the CVA list or closing stores and cutting the jobs and none of them come in the under £51,000 RV+ bracket, which is where the last Chancellor has provided the most help. I just don’t understand why nobody in Government has clocked this.”

While a parliamentary select committee is currently looking at business rates and is expected to announce its findings before the Autumn Budget, Colliers and the GBCC have urged the Prime Minister to take drastic action.

They are calling on Johnson to:

• Immediately freeze any further business rate increases next year. Few businesses can cope with yet another rise on top of unprecedented rises in the last few years.
• Immediately remove downward phasing of business rates payments enabling rate payers to pay their true rates liability now and not wait four years to do so.
• Review and implement a policy to reduce the multiplier from 50p to 34p in the £1. The current level is effectively an unsustainable 50 per cent tax.
•       Reform the whole systems of  complicated reliefs to avoid business rate deserts in some parts of the country. All businesses should pay something for the services they receive, but if the multiplier was reduced to a manageable level, it would not provoke the crisis it is at the moment.
•      Look at  other reliefs, such as agricultural reliefs which may need reforming, spreading the load more evenly across the UK economy.
• Reform the appeals system, providing more support to the VOA to deal with existing appeals’ backlog. It is essential that businesses have a true and fit for purpose appeal system, if they believe they have been assessed unfairly.
• Plan to Move to Annual Valuations. Annual valuations are ideal, but can only be achieved with a fully funded VOA and an appeal system that is fit for purpose.

Paul Faulkner, CEO of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce said, “Coupled with uncertainty created by Brexit, firms up and down the country are facing severe price pressures right now and it was no surprise to see a sharp increase in the number of companies concerned about rising business rates in our latest Quarterly Business Report.

“While Mr Johnson is understandably fixated on securing Britain’s withdrawal from  the European Union, it is essential that he also concentrates on fixing the fundamentals of the domestic economy in a bid to strengthen its competitiveness.

“Introducing a freeze on rates, simplifying and making this outmoded system fairer would be a good start and to echo the sentiment projected by the incoming PM in his victory speech, the hard work needs to start now.”

Webber added, “Business rates contribute £26 billion to the country’s coffers and is a vital source of income for local authority funding. Putting the burden of who pays it on an ever-decreasing number of companies is both fool hardy and dangerous, particularly if such bills are the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.

“The new prime minister has said he wants to support business and as Mayor of London he did call for a cut to business rates. I really hope he can navigate us through the Brexit negotiations and then turn to the choppy waters of Business Rates – before they finally overturn the ship, lifeboats and all! Let’s see if he follows through when he gets his hands on the tiller. The jury is indeed out!”

Boris Johnson insists that he will be the most pro-business PM possible

Boris Johnson has promised business leaders there will be enough turkeys for everyone to enjoy their Christmas in the event of a no-deal Brexit as he attempts to build bridges with industry.

Mr Johnson, who is expected to become prime minister this week, held a private meeting with about 30 FTSE bosses in which he tried to distance himself from his infamous “f*** business” remark.

He promised chief executives and chairmen from some of Britain’s largest and best-known companies, including Lloyds, Marks & Spencer and Centrica, that he would be the “most pro-business prime minister” in history.

The bosses were told to prepare for leaving the European Union without a deal. According to one attendee, Mr Johnson said that leaving without a deal “won’t be as bad as people tell you”.

He told the group, which also included the bosses of Unilever, Ocado, BP and Royal Bank of Scotland, that there was no need to worry about food supply if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal on October 31.

Mr Johnson told Conservative Party members this month: “Do you really think this great country isn’t capable of making Christmas dinner?” He repeated a similar reassurance to the business leaders after concerns from major grocers about the impact of leaving without a deal.

At the breakfast meeting in London last week, which was first reported by The Sunday Telegraph, he said that his widely reported use of an expletive when asked about business concerns about Brexit was not an attack on wider industry. He said that his criticism was aimed at the big business lobby groups who have made repeated warnings about the dire risks associated with a no-deal Brexit.

The former foreign secretary said he understood the importance of backing business and that his three major priorities as prime minister would be infrastructure, digital connectivity and education.

The CBI is expected to say today that Brexit has stalled economic progress for three years and that it will be down to the next prime minister to swiftly “inject a new lease of life into the UK economy”.

Philip Hammond plans to resign as Chancellor if Johnson becomes PM

Philip Hammond has announced that he intends to resign as chancellor if Boris Johnson becomes the UK’s next PM.

He said a no-deal Brexit, something Mr Johnson has left open as an option, was “not something I could ever sign up to”.

Asked if he thought he would be sacked next week, Mr Hammond said he would resign on Wednesday to Theresa May.

He said he intends to quit after Prime Minister’s Questions but before Mrs May steps down.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Hammond said it was important the next PM and his chancellor were “closely aligned” on Brexit policy.

Mr Johnson has said the UK must leave the EU by the new Brexit deadline of 31 October “do or die, come what may”.

His leadership rival Jeremy Hunt has said a no-deal exit cannot be ruled out, but he is prepared to further delay Brexit if required to get a new withdrawal deal.

Mr Hammond said the situation “might be more complicated” if Mr Hunt wins the Tory leadership contest, but “all the polling” suggested Mr Johnson would succeed.

“That is what is likely to happen, and I’m making my plans accordingly”, he said, adding he would wait until the result is announced on Tuesday to “see for sure”.

Mr Hammond said he understood committing to leave by this date, even with no deal, would be a condition for serving in Mr Johnson’s cabinet.

He said: “That is not something I could ever sign up to. It’s very important that a prime minister is able to have a chancellor that is closely aligned with him in terms of policy”.

He added that Jeremy Hunt’s position regarding a no-deal Brexit was “more nuanced”, and he had not demanded a “loyalty pledge” on the exit date from prospective ministers.

Mr Hammond said he would support either man in their pursuit of a new Brexit deal, but it would not be possible to agree this before the end of October.

“A genuine pursuit of a deal will require a little longer”, he added.

Mr Hammond has been a prominent critic of the idea of a no-deal Brexit, recently indicating he may vote to bring down the next PM to stop such a scenario.

He had said he could “not exclude anything” when asked whether he would back a motion of no-confidence in the government.

Asked whether he would go against the next PM in a vote of no confidence, he said: “I don’t think it will get to that”.

“I am confident that Parliament does have a way of preventing a no-deal exit on October 31 without parliamentary consent”.

“I intend to work with others to ensure Parliament uses its power to make sure that the new government can’t do that”, he added.

Earlier, Justice Secretary David Gauke reiterated his intention to resign from government should the next prime minister pursue a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Gauke told the Sunday Times: “If the test of loyalty to stay in the cabinet is a commitment to support no-deal on October 31 – which, to be fair to him, Boris has consistently said – then that’s not something I’m prepared to sign up to.”