A prominent UK shipowner and logistics provider has made an outspoken plea that Brexit is heading for an “absolute disaster” unless the government moves faster to solve anticipated customs bottlenecks at ports.
Sir Michael Bibby, who is president of the UK Chamber of Shipping, last night added his voice to growing chorus of alarm among business leaders that the UK’s exit from the EU next March could end in chaos.
“We can’t stress hard enough, time is now running out and we need decisions otherwise we will end up with stock piling up in a perilous scenario,” Sir Michael told a private gathering in the presence of UK shipping minister Nusrat Ghani.
Sir Michael, managing director of his family’s Bibby Line Group, added: “Unless you want ‘no deal’ and an absolute disaster with trucks piled up everywhere, supply chain systems breaking down, and the economy falling around our ears, then we need to stay in some sort of customs partnership, particularly for physical products we are moving through our ports and onto our ships.”
Earlier this week, the outgoing president of Britain’s largest business lobby group, the CBI, said there was “a limit to how long you can put up with uncertainty” over Brexit.
Paul Drechsler, who is also chairman of Bibby Line Group warned that UK companies are shifting investments offshore in fear of a chaotic EU exit.
And today, aerospace giant Airbus which employs 14,000 in the UK, threatened it is close to pulling out of the country due to uncertainty over future trading rules.
Bibby has a fleet of specialist survey and wind farm support vessels along with large retail, financial services and distribution businesses with 2,000 trucks.
'Solutions, not politics'
Sir Michael said he was in no doubt that ultimately the UK would have fully automated customs processes, but putting it in place would be “a massive amount of work” which could not be achieved by 29 March next year when the UK is due to leave the EU.
“The Chamber’s position is that we don’t not care about the politics, we just want the best solution for our sector,” Sir Michael told the annual reception for the maritime and shipping practice of headhunters Odgers Berndtson in London.
“We just want to make sure that we have frictionless trade and we can get our products to where they need to be in an efficient manner."
He concluded: “I can’t stress how strongly the industry is concerned on these matters and wants to find the best solution for the country.
"We want to work with you in finding a solution for our ports and shipping to make sure we can keep the supply chain working.”
Speaking before Bibby, Ghani conceded: “There is a lot of work to do and there will be challenges, but I am confident that these can be overcome.
“We are determined to secure with the EU a deal which keeps our trade as friction-less as possible whilst having the freedom to develop closer links around the world.”
In addition to her ministerial position, Ghani is also a government ‘whip’ who enforces her Conservative party’s discipline in parliament.
In an aside, she admitted to being “unsure what day of the week it was” after a tumultuous fortnight at Westminster.
Some in London's maritime cluster of lawyers, insurers and shipbrokers who are not involved in the physical trade in goods have downplayed their fears of the immediate impact of Brexit.
