A last minute withdrawal of the UK shipping minister today undermined a roadshow intended to calm Brexit fears among the world’s biggest community of shipowners in Greece.
Nusrat Ghani flew out of Athens for London early this morning on “urgent parliamentary business”, missing her keynote address to a government-backed seminar intended to bolster business confidence that the UK’s departure from the EU will be smooth.
Ghani’s speech, read by UK Ambassador to Greece Kate Smith, said the UK wanted the “broadest and deepest” future business partnership with Europe.
But her absence highlighted the difficulty the UK government faces in delivering a Brexit settlement that both supports business as well as satisfies voters urging a deeper and potentially more disruptive split.
The minister apologised for being “called away on urgent parliamentary business”, the chief executive of industry lobby group Maritime London, Jos Standerwick, told seminar delegates.
The minority UK Conservative government has to rely on the attendance of its MPs to overcome continual problems pushing its Brexit agenda through parliament.
Ghani did speak at a reception at the UK ambassador’s residence in Athens on Tuesday night after earlier walking the floor of the Posidonia trade exhibition at the Metropolitan Expo Centre.
Ghani made history earlier this year as the first female Muslim minister to address the House of Commons.
“Our trading relationship is strong. The UK is a big market for the EU and the EU is the UK’s biggest market,” the minister said in her keynote address.
“We are keen to secure a deal that secures security for businesses both in the UK and EU.”
She added: “We are also confident that we will be able to reach agreement on our future trading relationship with the EU which will be good for business.
“We want the broadest and deepest partnership covering more sectors and cooperating more fully than any free trade agreement anywhere in the world today.
“We are proposing a unique and ambitious partnership which is based on our rules and regulations being the same at the start while allowing for us both to make changes where we want to in a stable and orderly way.”
Delegates – who included representatives of Greek shipowners, some of whom are being courted to reflag vessels to the UK register – could be confident “London is not sleeping” in ensuring a smooth Brexit, said Maritime London chairman Lord Mountevans.
Julian Clark, law firm Hill Dickinson’s head of shipping, asked “Can we? Will we” make a success of Brexit. “Of course we can! Of course we will!”
Harry Theochari, global head of transport at Norton Rose Fulbright, argued that Brexit was “a sideshow” amid the accelerating pace of change in the business environment.
Digitisation would prove a far greater challenge and opportunity.
“They are not called disruptive technologies for no reason,” he said.
