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An increasing number of financial services companies in the UK are fleshing out plans to move operations or staff elsewhere in Europe because of Brexit, according to EY, the accounting firm. EY has been tracking statements from 222 leading financial services groups in Britain since the 2016 EU referendum regarding their efforts to minimise disruption for customers, particularly in the event of a no-deal Brexit. As of September 10, 77 of the companies followed by EY said they were considering moving, or would shift, some operations or staff to elsewhere in Europe. These included 28 banks and brokerages, 22 wealth and asset managers, and 15 insurers and brokers. Omar Ali of EY said companies were no longer “merely talking” about their plans. “Across Europe, the wheels are in motion on relocation and hiring strategies as firms make their ability to serve clients from day one of Brexit their number one priority.” Over the past quarter, an increasing number of companies have referred to the risk of a “hard or no-deal Brexit” when discussing their plans, said Mr Ali. Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, Madrid and Milan have all been named as places to which financial services companies will relocate some operations or staff. A separate report suggested the mood had darkened in the industry during the three months to September. Optimism fell sharply among the 100 financial services companies surveyed by the CBI business lobby group and the accounting firm PwC: the 10th quarter of deteriorating sentiment over the past 11. The CBI said it was the longest period of flat or falling optimism in the sector since the financial crisis. However, business volumes did increase slightly over the quarter to September according to the survey’s respondents. RecommendedRain Newton-Smith of the CBI said it was “simply impossible to ignore the dangerous signs of strain on the sector arising from the combined challenges of a subdued economy, Brexit, regulation and rapid advances in technology”. She added it was vital that a Brexit withdrawal agreement was reached between Britain and the EU so the sector could “continue to be one of the UK’s most attractive economic assets”. Corporate nervousness about the Brexit negotiations is, meanwhile, having an impact on the UK’s factories, according to the EEF, the manufacturers’ trade body. A survey by the EEF and Santander bank of 232 companies in the sector found that only one-third planned to increase their investment in plant and machinery. This was the lowest proportion in the survey’s five-year history. Of those companies planning to hold fire, 36 per cent cited order book uncertainty, 30 per cent political uncertainty and 17 per cent a lack of clarity over Brexit. The EEF warned this unwillingness to invest was likely to hamper Britain’s efforts to improve its poor productivity. Paul Brooks of Santander said caution was “understandable” given the “current uncertain political and economic conditions”. “It is important that businesses prioritise investments that will impact positively on their competitiveness, productivity and that widens their market base both inside and outside the EU.” Read again UK finance gears up for post-Brexit moves to Europe : https://ift.tt/2y0FndZThe UK's willingness to compromise is "not without limits", Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab will warn the EU in a speech to the Conservative conference. Mr Raab will vow to take a "pragmatic, not dogmatic" approach to the final phase of talks with Brussels. But if the EU tries to force the UK into accepting a customs union then it will leave without a deal, he will say. Later, Chancellor Philip Hammond will use his speech to try to outline plans for raising salaries. These include a £125m package allowing large employers to transfer up to 25% of their apprenticeship levy funds to businesses in their supply chain from April next year. The apprenticeship levy is a tax on large companies intended to pay for training at smaller companies, but uptake of the new policy has been slow. EU leaders have rejected the Prime Minister's Chequers plan because they believe it would undermine the single market by allowing the UK to "cherry pick" EU law. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said last week his party would back Mrs May in Parliament - if she agrees to their plan for a customs union with the EU and a Brexit deal that guarantees workers' rights and protects jobs. But Mr Raab will use his conference speech to warn there are limits to the UK's readiness to compromise - and they will not accept a customs union. Neither will the government agree to anything that divides Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK or makes the country a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) like Norway. He will say: "We are leaving the European Union in fact, not just in name. "If an attempt is made to lock us in via the back door of the EEA and customs union... or if the only offer from the EU threatens the integrity of our union, then we will be left with no choice but to leave without a deal." Restating his backing for Mrs May's Chequers plan, Mr Raab will say: "Our proposals would deliver a historic agreement that provides a roadmap out of the EU and a final deal that will be good for the whole country." In his speech, Philip Hammond will attempt to look beyond Brexit, calling on Conservatives to convince voters that their policies will "deliver a better tomorrow for them and their families". He will warn that slow wage growth and job insecurity mean too many people fear they are being left behind. The chancellor will also announce its intention to increase the number of people who can access science and technology courses and spend about £30m on encouraging big business to mentor small firms. The Conservatives will also announce plans to stop restaurant chains taking tips left for staff by diners. Rebecca Long Bailey, Labour's shadow business secretary, said: "This is now the fourth policy the Tories have copied from us at their conference. "It's beginning to feel like Groundhog Day." Please upgrade your browser Your guide to Brexit jargonThe possibility of a second Brexit referendum gripped investors’ attention last week, largely because it would sharply reduce the chance of a disastrous “no deal” outcome after the UK negotiations with the EU. Anything is possible in Britain’s febrile political environment, but both the main party leaders strongly oppose a meaningful “people’s vote”. James Blitz cogently argues that a second vote still seems unlikely. However, it may prove to be the only way of avoiding a hard Brexit while bridging the Tory divide on the issue. The UK has held two national referendums on EU membership, in 1975 and 2016. They were launched for the same reason: an irredeemable split in the governing party on the European issue. Theresa May, the UK prime minister, faces such a split, but has forcibly ruled out a second referendum. If she wavers now, the Brexiters would see this as the ultimate betrayal and would try to trigger a Tory leadership contest immediately. The prime minister’s position will change only if she finds herself in a more desperate political situation in early 2019. Meanwhile, Labour seems determined to vote against any deal that Mrs May brings home from Brussels, and will demand a general election if the deal is defeated at Westminster. With Tory Brexiters implacably opposed to the prime minister, a “Chequers plus” agreement with the EU might be defeated, though it would require the rebels to put Brexit at risk. The prime minister is calculating that this will not happen. Her party is surely not so bent on self-destruction that they will allow Labour to force an election that could sweep the hard left to power for a decade. Failing an election, many in the Labour party would support a referendum. But the Corbyn leadership still opposes any vote that includes “remain” as an option. Furthermore, Labour would need the support of Tory Remainers to force this through parliament. A sufficiently large rebellion from Tory centrists is unlikely, though there are early signs it could be stirring, including support from John Major , former prime minister. A parliamentary consensus might emerge next spring, but only if the alternative were an immediate hard Brexit. A really hard questionSelecting the exact question is a huge obstacle to a second plebiscite (see the Financial Times’s Tony Barber) . David Cameron’s vote in 2016 failed to settle the EU issue because one of the options, to leave, turned out to be imprecise and tortuous to implement. This merely allowed familiar political divisions to reappear, after a short respite, in an equally acrimonious form. For the sake of Britain’s democracy, the question in any new referendum should be fair and the answer unambiguous. The most obvious route would be to ask the public simply to approve any deal agreed between the UK and the EU. But what if the answer is “no”? The UK would then have rejected EU membership in 2016, and also rejected a “soft Brexit” alternative in 2018/19. But that does not imply that voters would have accepted a hard Brexit alternative by default. Nothing whatever would be settled in that event. Another option would be to offer three alternatives: remain, leave under the terms of the UK/EU deal, or leave under WTO terms. This would reopen the Brexit divide in yet another form. Leavers would see it as an example of continuing to hold successive referendums until the government gets the answer it wants — a tactic familiar in other EU countries. Remainers, on the other hand, would counter that conditions have changed since 2016, and that it would be absurd to disenfranchise the slightly more than half of the electorate that leans towards remain. Furthermore, whoever wins after a three-way split, the “victory” would probably command less than 50 per cent of the population, at least in first choice votes. Would that be seen as legitimate? For example, the vote could be 40 per cent to remain, 35 per cent to leave under the UK/EU terms and 25 per cent to leave without a formal deal. Does that mean that remain “wins”, even though 60 per cent of the population has voted to leave? That would be an awful outcome. Vernon Bogdanor has suggested an ingenious way round this. The referendum could pose two separate questions: first, to remain or leave; and, second, if leave, soft or hard Brexit? Again, the process would be confusing, but at least the result would be fairly hard to dispute. Britain could even take a leaf out of the French playbook, and hold the vote in two successive weeks. The second stage would only go ahead if the first vote was to leave. In terms of long-run democratic legitimacy, a two-stage vote would be my personal choice, but it could be difficult to get a parliamentary majority for this mechanism under the stress of looming Brexit, especially if the prime minister is opposed. So how could a second referendum emerge from this confusion? In the event of a prospective no-deal outcome, a coalition of the willing might try to force a bill for a meaningful second referendum through parliament, despite all the obvious procedural difficulties that would involve. That has never happened before. But nor has a cliff-edge Brexit. The more likely sequence is that Mrs May returns from her EU negotiations with a deal that is somewhat like Chequers, but with further concessions to the EU. This outcome could trigger enough Tory rebels from the pro-Brexit European Research Group to be blocked by the House of Commons, with or without a formal vote. The government’s only life-saving option would then be to suggest a referendum on “what form of leave should we adopt: soft or hard Brexit”? That would disenfranchise the remainers, but it could also be the party compromise that keeps the Conservatives, and maybe even Mrs May, in office. Read again Hard questions on a second Brexit referendum : https://ift.tt/2DIsifCBIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May called on her party on Sunday to unite behind her plan to leave the European Union, making a direct appeal to critics by saying their desire for a free trade deal was at the heart of her own Brexit proposals. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives for the BBC's Andrew Marr Show during the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Britain September 30, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville At the start of what is set to be one of the Conservative Party’s stormiest annual conferences, May’s plans were once again attacked by two former ministers, with former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, calling them “deranged”. Just six months before Britain is due to leave the EU in the country’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, the debate over how to leave the bloc is still raging in the centre-right Conservative Party, and even in government. May’s already fragile leadership was put under further pressure this month when the EU rejected parts of the so-called Chequers plan. But she put a positive spin on those talks, saying she was ready to consider to the EU’s concerns. “My message to my party is let’s come together and get the best deal for Britain,” May told the BBC in the central English city of Birmingham. “At the heart of the Chequers plan is a free trade deal, a free trade area and frictionless trade ... Chequers at the moment is the only plan on the table that delivers on the Brexit vote ... and also delivers for the people of Northern Ireland.” May has shown little sign of shifting away from her Chequers plan, named after her country residence where she hashed out an agreement on Brexit with her ministers in July, despite growing criticism that her proposals offer the worst of all worlds. Johnson, who quit May’s cabinet after Chequers was agreed, called her plans “deranged” and attacked the prime minister for not believing in Brexit. He, and the former Brexit minister David Davis, are pushing for a Canada-style free trade deal with the EU - a proposal May says will split Northern Ireland from mainland Britain by making the British province adhere to different customs rules. “Unlike the prime minister I fought for this, I believe in it, I think it’s the right thing for our country and I think that what is happening now is, alas, not what people were promised in 2016,” Johnson, the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed May, told the Sunday Times newspaper. Davis, who like Johnson resigned in protest said her plan was “just wrong”, but he added he thought it was 80-90 percent likely that the government would strike an exit deal with the EU. “I BELIEVE IN BREXIT”May’s team hoped the party’s conference would give her a platform to renew her pledge to help those people who are “just about managing”, trying to pull the focus away from Brexit and on to a domestic agenda. But her first announcement - for an additional levy on foreign home buyers - did little to reset the conversation, with Sunday dominated again with Brexit, a possible leadership campaign and the prospect of an early election. A report by a research group suggested Britain’s decision to leave the EU has cost the government 500 million pounds ($650 million) a week, wiping out for the moment any future savings from stopping payments to the bloc. Ian Lavery, chairman of the opposition Labour Party, said the Conservatives were “clearly too busy fighting amongst themselves and have neither the ideas nor the desire to offer real solutions to the problems they have caused”. Johnson’s interview in the Sunday Times was seen by many in the party to be the start of a campaign to unseat May - something that angered some Conservatives who are critical of the former foreign minister. May refused to be drawn on his comments, and did not refer to him by name in a lengthy interview with the BBC. But her response was sharp. “I do believe in Brexit,” she said. “But crucially I believe in delivering Brexit in a way that respects the vote and delivers on the vote of the British people while also protecting our union, protecting jobs and ensuring that we make a success of Brexit for the future.” Writing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Keith Weir
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Read again 'Let's come together,' PM May tackles Brexit critics : https://ift.tt/2Rbl5Hy
Theresa May has rejected claims she does not believe in Brexit - and insisted she would make a success of it "regardless of the outcome" of talks. She told the BBC's Andrew Marr show her plan for post-Brexit trade with the EU was not dead - despite it having been rejected by EU leaders. And she urged the Tory party - in Birmingham for their annual conference - to "come together" and back it. Boris Johnson has called the her so-called Chequers plan "deranged". In his latest broadside against her Brexit strategy, the former foreign secretary suggested he might be able to strike a better deal than her with Brussels. He told the Sunday Times : "Unlike the prime minister, I fought for this, I believe in it, I think it's the right thing for our country and I think that what is happening now is, alas, not what people were promised in 2016." Mr Johnson also set out domestic policy ideas, including building a bridge between Britain and Ireland and putting the HS2 scheme on hold to focus on a rail link in northern England. Mrs May, who campaigned for Remain in the 2016 EU referendum, hit back at Mr Johnson in her Andrew Marr interview. She said: "I do believe in Brexit. Crucially, I believe in delivering Brexit in a way that respects the vote and delivers on the vote of the British people while also protecting our union, protecting jobs and ensuring we make a success of Brexit for the future. "That's why I'm being ambitious for this country. That's why I want us to get a really good free trade deal with the European Union, which is what lies at the heart of the Chequers plan." She added: "We will make a success of Brexit, regardless of the outcome of the negotiations." The Labour Party has said it will back Mrs May in Parliament if she agrees to their plan for a customs deal with the EU and a Brexit deal that guarantees workers' rights and protects jobs. Mrs May said: "My message to the Labour Party is that they should stop playing politics with Brexit and start acting in the national interest. "My message to my party is let's come together and get the best deal for Britain." EU leaders have rejected her Chequers plan because they believe it would undermine the single market by allowing the UK to "cherry pick" bits of EU law it liked. Mrs May said she wanted a more detailed response from the EU on their objections, telling Andrew Marr: "If they have got counter-proposals, let's hear what those counter-proposals are." But she rejected the idea that the Chequers plan would undermine the EU single market. "We think we are putting forward a proposal that will maintain the integrity of the single market," she said. Mrs May said her plan for the UK and EU to share a "common rulebook" for goods, but not services, was the only credible way to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. The strategy has been fiercely criticised by Conservative Brexiteers, who say it would compromise the UK's sovereignty and betray the 2016 referendum vote. And writing in the Sunday Telegraph, ex-attorney general Dominic Grieve warned the PM she faced a "polite rebellion" by pro-EU MPs, with a "significant" number prepared to back another referendum if a deal could not be reached. AnalysisBy Chris Mason, BBC political correspondent, in Birmingham Just like the Labour conference last week, the Conservatives are keen to show us they have plenty of songs on their playlist. But just like the Labour conference last week, one record is louder than all the others and seems jammed on repeat: Brexit. Autumn guarantees two things: leaves falling off trees and Conservative conferences in which there is a series of deftly choreographed Johnsonian interventions, before and during the main event. Forty-eight hours on from his 4,000 or so words for the Daily Telegraph, one word from Mr Johnson is sufficient to grab a headline or two today: "deranged". The big question of the next few days, beyond the Brexit noise: does the PM offer any indication, however vague, of the possibility of her shifting on her much criticised Brexit plan? On other matters, Mrs May told the Sunday Times: "There's a long-term job to do. Because it is not just about Brexit, it's about the domestic agenda as well." She said people and businesses who did not pay tax in Britain would face a higher stamp duty levy of up to 3% when they bought property in the UK - to stop them driving up house prices. The money would be used to combat rough sleeping. She also revealed plans for a Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to showcase the nation in January 2022 - months before the next scheduled general election. And Health Secretary Matt Hancock said health officials would produce guidelines on the amount of time young people should spend on social media. The UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March 2019, and negotiations on the terms of exit and future co-operation are continuing. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party has apologised after a technical issue with its conference app meant Tory MPs had their phone numbers and other personal data revealed. The issue has since been resolved, the party said. The UK's data watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office, said it would investigate the breach. Please upgrade your browser Your guide to Brexit jargon
BIRMINGHAM (UNITED KINGDOM) (AFP) -
British Prime Minister Theresa May gathers her party for its annual conference this weekend, facing opposition on all sides as she heads into the final stretch of Brexit negotiations. The Conservative leader arrived in Birmingham, central England, just days after the EU rejected her plan for close future economic ties and demanded a rethink before a summit in mid-October. Many of her eurosceptic MPs also oppose the proposal and, led by former ministers David Davis and Boris Johnson, will use the conference to argue for a looser trade agreement instead. Johnson, long tipped as a successor to May, fired the starting gun by publishing his own Brexit plan on Friday, accusing the government of "collective failure" in the talks with Brussels. However, May insists there is no viable alternative, and is expected to use her closing speech at the conference on Wednesday to paint herself as a tough negotiator who will stand up for Britain. Her defiant response to the EU last week, where she demanded it show her "respect", won praise from her MPs and the eurosceptic press. Any concessions she might make to the bloc, including on the Irish border -- a key sticking point in the Brexit talks -- are not expected until after the conference wraps up. - Threats to leadership - Since losing her parliamentary majority in a disastrous snap election last year, May has faced endless internal plotting and rumours of a leadership challenge. Many potential successors inside and outside her cabinet will address delegates this week, notably Johnson, who quit as foreign minister in July over May's Brexit plan. Charismatic, witty and with a populist touch, Johnson is a favourite with the Conservative faithful and is expected to draw large crowds to his speech at a fringe event on Tuesday. But May's rivals are expected to wait and see what happens in the EU talks before making a clear move against her. One Brexiteer MP who wants a new leader told AFP the crunch time would come when the House of Commons votes on the final Brexit deal, possibly in November or December. May only has a slim working majority among the 650 MPs, making her vulnerable to even the smallest rebellion. - Labour threat - Away from Brexit, many Conservative MPs meeting in Birmingham are wary of the threat posed by the opposition Labour party, which held its own conference this week. Leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn presented a radical economic programme for government, while senior figures raised the possibility of a second Brexit vote if they took power, including an option to stay in the EU. Labour cannot force a general election but the prospect might increase if they go through with their threat to vote against May's Brexit deal, which could cause chaos. May has repeatedly ruled out a second Brexit referendum and says an election is "not in the national interest" -- but some Tories fear that if it happens, they are not ready. The Conservatives are slightly ahead of Labour in opinion polls, but a slew of senior figures have warned in recent days that they need new ideas to woo voters. Public opinion is shifting against eight years of Conservative public spending cuts, and around 200 demonstrators rallied in Birmingham on Saturday to protest against austerity. Labour is "speaking to the problems faced by many. We too often speak only for the few," senior MP Robert Halfon wrote on the influential ConservativeHome website. George Freeman MP, the former chairman of May's policy board, retweeted the article, adding: "Yep. While we seem more interested in our internal Brexit power struggle." In a less-than-auspicious start to the event, phone numbers and other personal details of MPs including senior ministers were temporarily revealed by a flaw in the official conference mobile app. The security breach saw members of the public able to view and edit data on attendees. A party spokesperson apologised for the gaffe, saying the technical issue had "been resolved and the app is now functioning securely". © 2018 AFP Read again With Brexit clock ticking, Britain's May gathers fractious party : https://ift.tt/2QlI1TmLONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party began gathering for its annual conference on Saturday with bitter divisions over her Brexit plans rising to the fore, raising doubts about her own future. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York, U.S., September 26, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019, but the terms of the departure remain unclear. May, under fire from critics in Brussels, opponents at home and some lawmakers in her own party, has said talks on a divorce deal are at an impasse. In an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper ahead of her party’s conference, May took aim at those who have scorned her “Chequers” Brexit proposals accusing them of “playing politics” with Britain’s future and undermining the national interest. However, in a demonstration of the challenge she faces, the newspaper ran an interview with former foreign minister Boris Johnson alongside on its front page in which he openly questioned May’s commitment to Brexit and called her plans “deranged.” “Unlike the prime minister I campaigned for Brexit,” said Johnson, the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed May who on Friday declined to answer directly whether he would rule out a leadership challenge. “Unlike the prime minister I fought for this, I believe in it, I think it’s the right thing for our country and I think that what is happening now is, alas, not what people were promised in 2016.” May says her “Chequers” proposals are the only viable option, but EU leaders have said parts of them are unacceptable and many Conservative lawmakers have threatened to vote down a deal based on May’s blueprint. The uncertainty has led to business concerns that there will be no deal, potentially leading to tariffs and border delays. Japanese carmaker Toyota (7203.T) on Saturday warned that leaving without an agreement would hit its production and jobs would ultimately be at risk. “Of course we want a deal,” Business Secretary Greg Clark, one of those who supports May’s plans which seeks free trade of goods with the EU, told BBC radio. “We need to have a deal. The evidence from not just Toyota and other manufacturers is we need absolutely to be able to continue what has been a highly successful set of supply chains.” A summit of EU leaders last week ended in a blunt dismissal of May’s proposals, which they said would fail to resolve arguments over the land border of Northern Ireland, in the UK, with the Irish Republic, in the EU, one of the main sticking points to a deal. Britain’s Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said the Irish issue was being used by some in the EU Commission “for political purposes”, but said he was open to suggestions from the bloc. “We aren’t pretending there aren’t alternative proposals that we would look at,” he told the Sun newspaper. “But we need credible responses for the proposals we have set out or credible alternatives, and we haven’t seen them yet.” FEARS OVER NO DEALAs Conservative lawmakers and party members began arriving in Birmingham, central England, for what is expected to be a fractious party conference which starts on Sunday, many have said the Chequers plans are dead and should be torn up. While May and government ministers continue to express confidence that a final Brexit deal can be agreed, they have also insisted no-deal would be better than a bad deal. However, Toyota became the latest high-profile business to warn that leaving the world’s biggest trading bloc without any trading agreement could add costs and cripple output at plants which rely on the just-in-time delivery of tens of thousands of components. “If we crash out of the EU at the end of March the supply chain will be impacted and we will see production stops in our factory,” said Marvin Cooke, managing director of Toyota’s Burnaston plant, which produced 144,000 vehicles last year. Earlier this week other carmakers in Britain including BMW, McLaren and Honda said they had triggered some contingency plans, such as certifying models in the EU, redrawing production schedules and stockpiling parts. “The additional burden of import and export cost would add permanent costs to our business,” Toyota’s Cooke said. “It would reduce our competitiveness. Sadly I think that would reduce the number of cars made in the UK and that would cost jobs.” Editing by Mark Potter and Marguerita Choy
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Read again PM May tells divided party - Don't play politics with my Brexit plan : https://ift.tt/2R8CaSF
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