UK Business groups attack Hunt over no-deal Brexit shift

Business groups criticised Tory leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt after he said that business collapses after a no-deal Brexit would be a necessary sacrifice.

Hunt ramped up the no-deal stakes on the weekend in an effort to make up ground on the favourite, Boris Johnson, who has pledged Brexit on October 21 “do or die”.

British Chambers of Commerce co-executive director Claire Walker attacked Hunt for putting political ideology over the needs of the economy.

“Politicians must remember that it is businesses that create jobs and opportunities across our communities, and it is the role of government to create the conditions necessary for these firms to survive and grow, now and in the future,” the Guardian quoted her as saying

“A focus on ideology rather than practicalities does not serve the interests of the UK, or its people, well.”

Hunt has endlessly repeated his credentials as an “entrepreneur” at campaign hustings and in media interviews.

The CBI said the case for any new prime minister to secure a good deal with the EU was “clearcut. Jobs and livelihoods will depend on it”, while shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said Hunt was “willing to sacrifice the jobs and living standards of millions”, calling this “the height of irresponsibility”.

The newspaper also cited an unnamed Conservative Party source as saying it was “shocking to hear an allegedly sensible politician talk so frivolously about the livelihoods of millions of people”.

Hunt had previously warned of the dangers a no-deal Brexit would bring, but in a BBC interview he said it could become a policy goal if his plan to renegotiate a departure deal with the EU – dismissed by Brussels as unrealistic – proved impossible.

“At the beginning of October, if there is no prospect of a deal that can get through parliament, then I will leave at the end of October because that is our democratic promise to the British people,” Hunt said.

Asked whether he would be willing to look the owners of family businesses in the eye and say they should be prepared to see their companies go bust to ensure a no-deal Brexit, Hunt said: “I would do so but I’d do it with a heavy heart precisely because of the risks.”