Chemical industry reacts to MP’s vote on Brexit deal

The country’s top manufacturing exporter has this morning (16 January) spoken about the House of Commons rejection of the negotiated Brexit deal. 

Steve Elliott, Chief Executive of the Chemical Industries Association, said “There is of course general business disappointment with the current position. We continue to lack the certainty that business has called for since the day after the 2016 referendum, in order that investment decisions can be made.”

On the impact of the vote, Steve said:

“Parliament has spoken. Whether we like it or not, what happened last night was a political process as part of a democracy. It is not for businesses to interfere in that process. What we can and what we have responsibility to do, is to advise of the consequences, and those consequences – in terms of contingency plans and actions - are becoming more and more critical as we get closer to our 29 March exit from the EU. Every delay risks either no decision on UK investment, trade and jobs or, worse than that, irreversible decisions.”  

On next steps he said:

“What we now need, and we have needed from the very start, is for MP’s of all parties to work together on behalf of the country to identify common ground and the basis of ‘plan B’ so that when the Prime Minister reports on Monday we can be confident there will be a majority view on securing a deal. The need for a negotiated deal remains and gets more urgent by the day - as does the need to avoid a ‘no deal’ outcome.”

CONTINUE READING ON www.cia.org.uk