Speaking at the CBI this morning, Rishi Sunak was unambiguous in his opposition to the “Swiss-style” EU deal mooted over the weekend:
“Let me be unequivocal about this: under my leadership the UK will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws […] Brexit can deliver and is already delivering enormous benefits and opportunities.”
Number 10 is clearly keen to put out this fire fast…
Dominic Cummings has finally killed the CBI. Speaking to Bloomberg ahead of their conference today, CBI director general Tony Danker rejected the supposed ‘Swiss-style deal’ explosively mooted by the Sunday Times this weekend, telling the government to “forget about” it and instead embrace Boris’s deal:
“Forget about the Swiss deal… We just want the Boris Johnson Brexit deal to be implemented and that’s not happening right now because of the Northern Ireland Protocol.”
He urges Rishi to get on and solve the Northern Ireland problem so the country can get on with unlocking more trade opportunities. Because that’s going so well…
The Chancellor will be announcing his Winter Economic Plan (WEP) at 12:00 today in the Commons. In the lead up to the new announcement, Breaking with red box tradition, Rishi has posed for a photo-op with the WEP in a glossy new document alongside TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady and CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn. Sounds like the much anticipated German-style ‘Kurzarbeit’ system has wide-ranging support…
Remainers claiming to be on the side of businesses will have been left red-faced last night, after the Director-General of the CBI told Newsnight the organisation now opposes any extension to the implementation period beyond December 2020; arguing businesses have the “resilience to be able to plan for a ‘no deal’ Brexit,” and they have “no interest in delaying”.
This from the same organisation Vote Leave styled as the “voice of Brussels“. Amazing the kind of damascene conversion majority government can inspire. They’ve come a long way since shouts of “kill the CBI” were heard at Cummings’ Vote Leave victory speech…
The CBI’s rolling survey of British business confidence in the UK has seen optimism in British factories hit its highest level since 2014; leaping from -44 in October to +23 in January. Prizes for guessing what event in between may have triggered the leap…
The leap – coming only a week before Britain finally Brexits – is confirmation that growth is settling into top gear since the pre-Election uncertainty was ended, and once again undermines the arguments of remainers with the biggest quarterly swing since records began in 1958. The Boris bounce in action proving the gloomsters and doomsters wrong…
Following Guido’s reporting that Boris had scrapped reducing income tax in the budget that never was, and he’s scrapping the same income tax cuts in the forthcoming manifesto, Boris has just announced at the CBI he’s also scrapping his pledged corporation tax cuts that would have seen the rate fall from 19% to 17%. Boris is really taking liberties in the knowledge the Tories’ manifesto can’t be any worse than the last one, they’re still having a good go…
