THE UK boss of one of Germany’s biggest companies has called Brexit a “complete shambles” and accused the Tories of failing the business community over it.
Terry Sargeant, chair and CEO of industrial giant ThyssenKrupp in the UK, said the Conservatives were putting their political survival before the national interest.
He predicted a wave of redundancies if the Brexit negotiations ended up with No Deal, and said he was speaking out to protect the “working men and women” who would suffer.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, the lifelong Tory voter said: “It is a complete shambles. They have failed business. The Tory party aren’t making decisions for business, they are making decisions to prevent an implosion in their own party.”
Mr Sargeant is a member of he is a member of Germany Industry UK, the body that represents 100 German companies in Britain including BMW, Lufthansa and DHL.
He went on: “In Germany, people look at this and are aghast at what is happening.
“While in the UK we think about Brexit every minute of the day, in Germany, people think about it for 13 seconds before every quarter end or even trimester.
“We [businesses] will make decisions based on ease of trade and attractiveness of the market environment. If you make a market more difficult than it is at the moment, then what is the attraction to the investor?
“I do not see how we can continue doing business where supply chains are so interlinked with being part of the customs union.”
Mr Sargeant said he would never vote Tory again, but would not back Jeremy Corbyn either.
One of the biggest steel production and civil engineering companies in the world, ThyssenKrupp supplies 60% of the metal procured by Airbus and 100% of Boeing’s.
It also supplies the Ministry of Defence, escalators and lifts, and steering columns, shock absorbers and suspension systems for the car industry.
He said: “Every time Jaguar Land Rover sneezes, we get a cold. Once the UK leaves the customs union there will be barriers and possibly duties and tariffs to be paid. At the very least there will be paperwork. These are the very real concerns companies like us have.”
Alluding to former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson allegedly saying “f*** business” when company bosses raised concerns over Brexit, he added: “I think there’s a faction in the Tory party that just don’t care about business.”
He went on: “I am from a working-class background and it is the working man who is going to be hit hardest. This is about the future generations. I am passionate that we do what we can to stop the damage, that is why I am speaking out.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel