HoC Brexit Committee
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/12/no-deal-brexit-will-be-commercial-suicide-manufacturers-tell-mps
Seamus Nevin, the chief economist with Make UK, which represents some of the country’s largest manufacturers, said:
“There is a direct link between politicians talking up the prospect of no deal and British firms losing customers overseas and British people losing jobs.
A no-deal Brexit would be nothing short of commercial suicide.”
He told the House of Commons Brexit select committee that
some businesses were already “downsizing or completely shutting down in the UK"
Some were very profitable and leaders in their sector, but were struggling because of the political uncertainty.
Nevin said he was aware of one company, which he could not name because of a confidentiality agreement, that was planning to quit Britain.
“That will result in several thousand job losses,”
he said adding that a no-deal Brexit “would be nothing short of an act of economic vandalism”
and “undo 25 years of economic progress and consign a generation of highly skilled workers to the scrapheap”.
...
Tim Rycroft, the chief operating officer with the Food and Drink Federation, said
shortages of food would begin to appear within two weeks of a no-deal Brexit.
Fresh fruit and vegetables would be held up on the Calais-Dover journey because of mandatory food health checks,
but so too would processed chicken originating in the UK, he said.
“We produce a lot of chicken but they are sent to [the] EU for processing and then re-imported.”
Rycroft said bread and confectionery were other foodstuffs that would be affected, as the UK did not produce enough dried milk or high-protein wheat.
He said:
“We will see selective shortages and probably unpredictably and that might go on for several weeks and potentially months after a no-deal exit.”
Nevin also challenged claims that the port of Calais would be able to deliver a frictionless Brexit in the event of a crash-out.
He told MPs the port had done a trial of sanitary and phytosanitary tests that would be mandatory on the EU side and this had led to long delays.