World’s Biggest Firms Struggle With Brexit Repercussions

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a non-profit think tank, earlier estimated that the post-Brexit investment levels in Britain are less than 70% what they were before the referendum.

Some of the world’s biggest companies, including those based in Britain, have been increasingly concerned over the country’s post-Brexit policy shift, which in particular reflects the UK’s worsening investment climate, a US news network has reported.

The news outlet referred to the “political chaos that came with” Brexit to allegedly foster an economic environment that “businesses say is increasingly difficult to work with.”

“Inaction and uncertainty have been hallmarks of policy since Britons voted to leave the EU, as five prime ministers cycled through Downing Street’s black door, including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson who in 2018 made the infamous proclamation ‘f**k business’,” according to the news network.

The outlet also quoted Dan Vahdat, founder of the UK healthcare giant Huma Therapeutics, as saying that his company hasn’t seen “any progress” in Britain for three or four years regarding the investment environment.

“The hope was that with Brexit something should have changed, because the whole idea was that we were going to have more autonomy. But nothing has happened,” Vahdat added.

He was echoed by US pharmaceutical behemoth Eli Lilly & Co. which singled out a “stifling commercial environment” that doesn’t invite investment in Britain. The same tone was struck by Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft Corp., who said the UK regulators’ move to block its acquisition of the Activision Blizzard video game holding company showed that the EU was “better for business.”

This followed James Dyson, the Brexit supporting founder of the eponymous maker of advanced vacuum cleaners and fans, recently accusing Downing Street of “scandalous neglect” of the country’s science sector.

In a separate development, the UK-Swedish COVID-19 vaccine producer AstraZeneca Plc and the multinational automotive manufacturing corporation Stellantis NV have blamed British government policies for prodding them “to look abroad for factory sites.”

Martha Lane Fox, president of the British Chambers of Commerce and a tech entrepreneur, told the US news outlet in this regard that the UK government “needs to show that it is listening to not just one area of business, but the whole country, and really responding to the needs of businesses across multiple different sectors.”

Archie Norman, chairman of the UK retailer Marks & Spencer and a former Tory MP, was cited by the outlet as saying that he “doesn’t care whether it’s a growth strategy or competitiveness, there’s got to be a profound point of view as to how Britain is going to compete.”

“A competitive economy is one where the public and private sector work together on regulation, on trade, on investment in skills, on how government supports entrepreneurs, how we shape the tax system. At the moment that’s come slightly adrift post-Brexit,” he pointed out.

The remarks come after the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change think tank claimed in a report that “three years on, Brexit casts a long shadow over the UK economy.” The think tank specifically revealed that current business investment levels in Britain is at least 31% below the pre-Brexit referendum trend, while in the EU, by contrast, the index is currently 2% above its pre-2016 period.