Business lobby backs reopening EU lines

Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said Andy Burnham's move to reconsider Labour's red lines on Europe should begin with the economy. Repairing the brexit economic damage, she argued, is where the debate should start.

Haviland welcomed the prime minister reopening the Brexit debate, saying that in the view of businesses the way the UK currently trades with the EU works against them. "We do think it's right, because of what we know from the evidence of how businesses feel it's not working," Haviland said.

The business lobby group's own survey points to why: more than half of bosses it questioned believed the deal negotiated by Boris Johnson's government and enacted in 2021 was not helping them. Haviland said firms had expected the new trading rules to get easier over time, but that had not happened. "We expected it to be very difficult at the beginning... But actually, that has not happened," she said.

The measured cost of leaving the EU

Economists estimate Brexit has cost the UK economy up to £240bn so far, with national income per head between 6% and 8% lower than it would have been had the country stayed in the EU.

The Office for Budget Responsibility, the official forecaster, puts the long-term hit at about 4% of gross domestic product.

Burnham's reassessment

Burnham told Labour's conference in Liverpool last month that Brexit had done "more harm than good", and he pledged to reassess Britain's relationship with the EU. Among the options he raised was fully rejoining the bloc.

This week he went further, saying that failing to pursue a better deal with the EU would be a "major dereliction of duty".

Consultation and budget demands

Haviland made her remarks in an interview in Norwich alongside Nova Fairbanks, chief executive of the Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, on the sidelines of an NCC trade fair at the Norfolk Showground.

The BCC will now consult its 50,000 members, who collectively employ more than 6 million people, on options for Britain's EU relationship - including rejoining the EU.

Haviland said the language around Brexit needs to move on a decade after the referendum. "We are 10 years since the referendum... It is an economic question," she said.

Fairbanks raised the question of how leave-backing bosses now view the economics. "It would be very interesting to see how many businesses that were very much pro-Brexit are still pro-Brexit," she said.

The two business leaders also pointed to growing pressure on firms from rising energy prices and other effects of the war in the Middle East. Haviland urged the chancellor, John Healey, to take bold action at this month's budget despite government concerns about public finances and bond market jitters.

"Business don't really want just a 'steady as she goes'. They want to see some action," she said.

Her specific asks include:

• •action on energy bills, where she said about 40% of your energy is actually energy and the other 60% is about tax
• •reform of business rates
• •action on employment taxes

"The big test for the chancellor is to put his money where his mouth is for business at the budget," Haviland said.

Businesses now await John Healey's budget this month, with the BCC's member consultation on the EU relationship under way.