Royal Dutch Shell has this morning announced it will move its global headquarters and tax residency from the Netherlands to the UK. In a major shakeup that will also see the energy giant scrap its dual share structure in favour of a single class of shares – and drop “Royal Dutch” from its name – the company confirmed it would vote to implement the measures at a shareholders’ meeting on 10th December. Guido’s old enough to remember the New European opining both Shell and Unilever should “take advantage of lower corporate taxes in the Netherlands” post-Brexit…
Speaking this morning, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng called the move “a clear vote of confidence in the British economy” that would “strengthen competitiveness, attract investment and create jobs”, with Shell Chairman Andrew Mackenzie adding that the plans would allow the company to “strengthen [its] competitiveness and accelerate both shareholder distributions and delivery of its strategy to become a net-zero emissions energy company”. The Dutch government, meanwhile, called the move “an unwelcome surprise”…
Premier Inn owner Whitbread is coughing up an additional £12-13 million on higher staff wages and bonuses following persistent Brexit induced staff shortages. Whitbread is keen to employ an additional 2,000 staff to add to their 30,000 existing headcount and had announced a pay increase for hourly-paid staff at the start of October. However a strong post-Covid bounce has, according to Whitbread, put Premier Inn in a position to pay higher wages. Previously, passionate remainers keeping tight-lipped about this development…
Chief executive Alison Brittain said:
“Whitbread traded significantly ahead of the market in the UK during the first half of the year.
“The operating environment during the summer and into autumn has been challenging largely as a result of our very high occupancy levels, market-wide supply chain issues and a tighter labour supply in the hospitality sector.”
It seems thanks to Brexit, Premier’s Inn’s staff might be sleeping more soundly than their customers…
According to Americans for Tax Reform, Britain is the most improved country on the 2021 International Trade Barrier Index, jumping from 8th to 4th place since 2019. By implementing its own UK Global Tariff schedule in January 2021 as a replacement for the European Union Common External Tariff, approximately 60% of trade will come into the UK tariff zone free. Additionally, the impressive 60+ continuity or bridging agreements that the UK has signed since 2019 will continue to facilitate international trade.
Bagging the top spots in the International Trade Barrier Index were Singapore, New Zealand and the Netherlands. India, Algeria and China were the worst ranked countries due to their stringent regulations, tariffs and trade barriers. EU powerhouses Germany and France ranked at 13 and 22 respectively.
Speaking at today’s Trade Barrier Index launch at the Taxpayers’ Alliance’s Tufton Street HQ, Victoria Hewson, Head of Regulatory Affairs at the Institute of Economic Affairs, warned that despite this positive news “the UK is still in danger of adopting the EU’s worst barriers”. To benefit from Brexit it is essential that the UK cuts restrictive trading regulations.
Aldi is the latest supermarket to offer their British truck drivers a huge Brexit bonus – boosting them upto £18.41 an hour. The move comes after the supply dried up-post Brexit. What was that about free movement of people not suppressing wages?
HGV drivers who were earning £350 per week in January are now reportedly on course to take home up to £800. Tesco has started offering drivers a £1,000 bonus fee if they join the firm before 30 September and Morrisons is developing schemes to train staff to become drivers. While the total number of drivers remains an issue, Guido can’t imagine domestic recruitment would remain an issue given these new bumper salaries. Naturally the Road Haulage Association has told the Times only the government can solve any remaining bumps in the road…
NB: A previous version of this article mistakenly suggested lorry drivers were being offered £800 per day rather than per week.
Co-conspirators will no doubt remember the warnings delivered by the Remain campaign in 2016, that Brexit would threaten the Nissan Sunderland plant. As far back as 2013, before he became a fugitive from justice, Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn was warning the UK over a possible EU exit. After the referendum in August 2016, Nissan warned their future in the UK hinged on Brexit talks. Unequivocal…
It wasn’t just Nissan: Remainer commentators continued using Nissan as a poster boy for the threat of Brexit throughout the negotiations. In February 2019 The Independent’s Sean O’Grady opined “Nissan’s U-turn is the beginning of the end for Britain’s revived car industry”, citing another Independent article suggesting the Japanese firm “may cancel intention to build vehicle in UK less than two months before Britain leaves EU”. Alastair Campbell was equally strong-headed:
If we leave, Nissan leave https://t.co/sRfijjDSFR
— ALASTAIR CAMPBELL (@campbellclaret) November 27, 2019
Who better to perform a screeching u-turn on Brexit than a car manufacturer…
Nissan’s chief executive, Ashwani Gupta, is now out on the airwaves describing Brexit as an “opportunity” as he confirms a massive new investment into their Sunderland plant:
“I have gone through this journey and I would say that key success factor for the Brexit has always been a trade friendly business conditions to sustain our business, not only in UK, but in the whole of Europe. And thanks to the Brexit, I think Nissan is going moving forward to use Brexit as an opportunity.”
In his words, today’s announcement is a “renaissance of the British car industry”. Surely congratulations from the likes of Campbell will be forthcoming…
Despite Nissan’s announcement that it plans to build a massive battery ‘gigafactory’ in Sunderland by 2024, it looks like Labour’s Ben Bradshaw still can’t see the bright side of the Brexit deal. Even when it delivers a huge investment boost and creates thousands of jobs, it’s all still a ‘despite Brexit’ kind of pyrrhic victory for Ben…
Asked on Politics Live whether the announcement is a benefit of the deal, Bradshaw said:
“No, and I don’t think all of its implications and impacts have been felt yet, because we’ve been living in the last 16 months in a world dominated by Covid, and I think lots of the impacts have been concealed by that…constituents who come to me who say we’ve just given up trying to import or export stuff between us and the European Union because of the costs, the hassle, the VAT, and everything else…”
As his co-panelist Ben Bradley points out, however, non-EU exports are up, and investment continues to flood into the UK at the highest levels since the referendum. Guido doubts it’ll make much of a difference to Bradshaw though, who has been miserable for the last 5 years…
