Businesses told to ‘take certain steps’ to prepare for no-deal Brexit

Businesses that import from or export to the EU “need to take certain steps” to prepare for a no-deal Brexit, Treasury Minister Mel Stride has said.

The Financial Secretary said the Government was issuing a “call to action” to get businesses ready for the “unlikely event” of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

The comments come just days after business groups criticised politicians for focusing on in-fighting rather than preparing for Brexit, warning there is not enough time to prepare for a no-deal scenario.

Mr Stride, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, said: “The time is now, so there is a call to action and those who are importing or exporting into and out of the EU 27, in the unlikely event that there is a no deal at the end of March, will need to take certain steps. They need to do that now.”

Mr Stride said businesses needed to “get a customs agent on board” or “look at software they can use to make sure (of) their import and export declarations”.

Asked if this advice was “a bit late in the day”, he responded: “Well no. We’ve been preparing now for two years very solidly, so we’ve done things like liaising with all our ports and making sure that we’ve got those parts of the equation in the right place.

“We’ve been ramping up the information campaign, over the summer we have 106 technical notes dealing with all sorts of aspects of the issues we’re discussing now.”

Pressed on why advice had not been issued earlier, Mr Stride added: “Well it is a case of choosing the right time to go out with the right information and what we didn’t want to do was obviously go out well in advance, suggesting everybody get ready when it wasn’t appropriate at that stage.

“What we are now saying is we have reached that point.”

On Wednesday the British Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry, manufacturers’ organisation the EEF, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Institute of Directors issued a joint statement warning “there is simply not enough time to prevent severe dislocation and disruption” in the event of a no-deal.