EMPLOYER confidence has plunged to a five-year low, a survey suggests today, prompting fears that the UK jobs market is "cooling off" on the prospect of Brexit.
And the Brexit Tracker of accountancy firm EY warns firms in the City of London are planning to shift more than 10,000 jobs out of Britain by the first day of the country’s withdrawal from the EU.
The grim business outlook came as Theresa May enjoyed a rare moment of Conservative unity on Brexit at Westminster as both Leavers and Remainers within her party hailed her “Brexit breakthrough” with last week’s joint UK-EU report.
On Friday, the EU27 is set to confirm that “sufficient progress” has been made in the negotiations for them to proceed to transition and trade.
The snapshot of business confidence over Brexit by recruiters Manpower, involving more than 2,000 employers, found pessimism was "acute" in London; a state of mind blamed on the UK capital's prospects after withdrawal.
James Hick, managing director of ManpowerGroup Solutions, said that while the country had not seen a “mass exit,” it was “starting to see tangible signs of London's pre-eminence fading with the capital reporting its weakest outlook in four years".
EY's Brexit Tracker, which monitors 222 financial services firms, suggested banks, asset managers and brokers were now expecting frontline roles to leave Britain because of Brexit; the net loss of City jobs was put at 10,500, lower than the 12,500 estimated last year, but the number of financial services firms estimating job relocations has risen from 12 to 26.
Omar Ali, EY’s finance director, noted how the UK-EU report, which pointed to a future transition period, had "sent a wave of relief across the City".
No 10 pointed out how the Prime Minister had told her Cabinet colleagues yesterday that the general feeling she had picked up at the weekend from voters in her Maidenhead constituency following the UK-EU report was - "we're on our way".
In the Commons, a bullish Tory leader won praise from both sides of her party.
Arch Remainer, Anna Soubry, hailed the agreement on phase one as a “major step forward” and claimed there was "complete unanimity" within Conservative ranks.
Fellow Brexit rebel, Ken Clarke, the former Chancellor, was cheered by colleagues after he congratulated Mrs May over her "triumph" while leading Brexiteer, Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, joined him in hailing the PM for "driving through an improved agreement".
The PM echoed David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, telling MPs the offer on the table – which included a divorce settlement up to £39 billion – was conditional on a final trade deal.
"If we don't agree that partnership, then this offer is off the table," she declared.
Boasting how there was a “new sense of optimism” in the talks, Mrs May said the UK-EU report was “good news” for Leavers, “worried we were so bogged down in the torturous negotiations, it was never going to happen” and for Remainers, “worried we were going to crash out without a deal”.
She added: "We are going to leave but we're going to do so in a smooth and orderly way; securing a new, deep and special partnership with our friends while taking back control of our borders, money and laws once again."
But Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, claimed the PM had “scraped through after 18 months; two months later than planned with many of the key aspects of phase one still not clear”.
Insisting all governments across the UK should be "fully involved" in the next phase of Brexit talks, Ian Blackford for the SNP urged Mrs May to confirm that “in no circumstances” would there be a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.
The PM insisted she had done so many times, urging the Highland MP to “google it and find from Hansard how many times I've said it”.
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