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I’ve had it up to here, says forwarding boss

[ January 17, 2019   //   ]

Ian Baxter, chairman of international forwarder, Baxter Freight, says he is “fed up with this rotten Parliament” for failing to give businesses any clarity on what is going to happen on Brexit Day, now less than ten weeks away.
He spoke out after Parliament rejected Theresa’s May’s Brexit plan on 15 January, saying: “The fact that I run a European freight business and the government cannot tell me what’s going to happen regarding trade with Europe in two months’ time, is just outrageous.
“Businesses need answers, we can’t be expected to waste money on pointless no deal preparations or do nothing while the clock ticks down. People’s livelihoods depend on getting this right and doing so quickly. Let me say to MPs directly that if you harm the people, the people will rightly boot you out as our representatives.”
“We simply need to know what our future with the European Union (EU) looks like. This is not a game, this is people’s livelihoods and the idea of crashing out of the EU without any kind of transition – let alone plan for a future workable relationship – is crazy and would do great harm to British business.”
He added that while Brexit is complicated and divisive, “it is incredibly frustrating that the same people who voted to trigger Article 50 two years ago still can’t come together to agree how we are going to leave the EU and the kind of relationship we would like in the future.
“We’ve had Conservative MPs trying to replace their leader, Labour trying to trigger a general election, the SNP agitating for independence, arch Brexiteers praying we will crash out of the EU without a deal, arch remainers trying to ensure we will never leave the EU regardless of the result of the referendum – it’s a mess. Together they have conspired to upend two years of sensible negotiation of what a real world departure from the EU will look like.
“It is time for politicians to remember who they work for and start working in the national interest, building a cross party consensus on the way forward from here.”

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