Brexit

Department for Exiting the European Union written question – answered at on 5 December 2017.

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Photo of Lord Birt Lord Birt Crossbench

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the comments by the Director-General of the CBI on the impact of Brexit on investment and jobs in the UK that progress must be made on the Brexit negotiations or “a trickle of lost opportunities could become a flood”.

Photo of Lord Callanan Lord Callanan Minister of State (Department for Exiting the European Union)

The UK remains open for business and has been ranked as the seventh best place to do business in the world by the World Bank. Since the referendum we have seen companies showing their confidence in the UK, with major investments announced by GlaxoSmithKline, Google and Apple, among others. The unemployment rate is at a 42 year low while the employment rate is near record highs.

We have been engaging with businesses and industry bodies from all sectors of the economy and all regions of the UK in order to inform our negotiations with the EU.

We must now look ahead to moving our discussions onto our future relationship. For this to happen, both parties need to build confidence in both the process and indeed in the shared outcome.

We are ready to move these negotiations on. Doing so will allow us to best achieve our joint objectives and move towards a deal that works for both the UK and the EU, and for all our businesses and citizens.

We remain ready and willing to engage as often and as quickly as needed to secure this outcome over the weeks remaining ahead of the December European Council.

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