Small firms could not exist without EU workers, says minister
|
Version 0 of 1. Some small businesses won’t be able to exist if they have to replace workers from the EU should Britain vote to exit, the minister for small business, Anna Soubry, has said. Speaking at a debate in London on 7 March exploring how the EU referendum will affects SMEs, Soubry said: “Overwhelmingly companies are saying ‘where on earth am I going to get the people I need – not just in tens but in some cases hundreds – to operate my factory, work in my plant?’ “If you go to Lincolnshire and East Anglia and look at the people who are cutting the cauliflowers and picking the fruit, harvesting the crops there, they are almost exclusively from the European Union … These are businesses, usually small – and by that I mean with less than 250 people – that will not be able to exist without that labour. The question is: if we leave the EU, where will these businesses get their labour from?” Her claim was challenged by John Mills, the Labour donor who is the deputy chair of Vote Leave, who said the solution would be to train up more British people. However, Soubry said that businesses could “not afford to wait years” for that to happen. There are now more than 2 million EU workers in the UK. Conservative MPs and activists say EU workers are attracted by in-work benefits – which formed a core component of David Cameron’s renegotiated EU deal. Research published by the Guardian last summer suggested a rush for dual nationality passports by thousands of EU workers worried about the return of work permits.. The debate, organised by software company Sage, was dominated by the question of workers’ rights and the movement of people, and the panel was asked whether employees from the EU would need work permits immediately after a leave vote. Mills said that neither EU workers in the UK or British workers abroad would have to move immediately, although he added that there could be changes to the rules further down the line. But Soubry said the question of work permits was “one of the great unknowns” of the referendum and warned that there would be “a period of total chaos” following a vote in favour of Brexit. As Article 50 – the mechanism through which a country can leave the EU – has never been used, many of the rights and rules binding British businesses and EU workers would be negotiated over a two-year period, as recently set out in a Cabinet Office report. Trade rules were also a key topic of debate, with Mills saying that the fallback option in the absence of a negotiated deal would be “relatively low” World Trade Organisation (WTO) tariffs. Soubry said tariffs would lead to a hike in prices. Mills said: “The idea that we are going to be excluded from Europe and from trading with the rest of the EU as, for example, not being in the single market is just a complete scare story. You don’t need any agreement from anyone to fall back on the WTO.” The WTO rules governing trade are laid out in the Cabinet Office report, which says that the UK would have to renegotiate its former commitments as part of the EU with all 161 WTO members. Until that point “there could be questions surrounding our rights to access WTO members’ markets”, the report says. Sign up to become a member of the Guardian Small Business Network here for more advice, insight and best practice direct to your inbox. |