LONDON: Business leaders have traded blows over EU regulations with Carolyn Fairbairn, head of the CBI, dismissing “silly examples” put forward by Eurosceptics to justify Brexit.
John Longworth, co-chair of “Leave Means Leave”, told MPs on Wednesday that he believed leaving the EU would provide an opportunity to cut “10 per cent” of regulations, reducing costs for businesses.
Mr Longworth, a former director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, told the Brexit select committee that truck drivers were “angry” that they could not do more overtime because of regulations. He also cited a manufacturer of smoked salmon who was told that his tins had to include the label “may include fish”.
But Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the CBI, replied: “We have to be careful not to pick silly examples . . . We need to have a proper consideration of the costs and benefits.”
Ms Fairbairn said that the regulations governing commercial drivers were “invented by the UK” and the Road Haulage Association backed them.
She said that many CBI members had “large concerns” about the divergence of labelling post-Brexit because it was already one of their largest costs.
But Mr Longworth said larger companies tended to back the EU because it was easier for them to negotiate their way around Brussels. “Deregulation is often top of the list for small business,” he said.
One MP privately said that Mr Longworth, who now represents a campaign group rather than a business membership group, had been invited to talk to the committee because it had been hard for the committee to find organisations prepared to argue for the business benefits of leaving the EU.
Frances O’Grady, head of the TUC, meanwhile warned that cutting regulation could have negative consequences for working people.
Ms Fairbairn said the CBI — which argued against leaving the EU — was now “in the business of getting the best from Brexit”.
She said the group had five main demands from the Brexit process, including barrier-free access to the single market, access to “skills and talent”, regulatory equivalence, the best possible trade deals around the world and the protection of economic and social benefits.
