A Tory minister has admitted that leaving the European Union has been bad for many British businesses.
Kevin Hollinrake said there was “no doubt” that exporting to the EU has been made more difficult by Brexit.
The business minister’s comments are surprising because Conservative ministers are usually reluctant to concede that quitting the EU has had any negative impacts.
Speaking on Radio Four’s Today programme this morning, Hollinrake said: “There’s no doubt, for some businesses, it is more difficult to trade with the European Union. There is no doubt that is the case.”
He added: “For some businesses, particularly in the food and drink sector, particularly SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), they’re finding it more difficult to trade with the European Union. That’s the reality.
“But we have sought to ease those frictions of course, we want to ease them further.”
“Yes it is more difficult today, but the vote for Brexit was a vote for change. We have to try and ease those frictions.”
However, the minister insisted that only 10% of British businesses export at all, while only 73% of UK exports are to the EU.
Dr Mike Galsworthy of the European Movement told HuffPost UK: “It’s refreshing to see politicians from the front benches start to acknowledge the stark staring obvious about Brexit - that it has been profoundly damaging for so many British businesses and citizens.
“It was also good to see Rachel Reeves recently accepting in her Financial Times interview the OBR data on Brexit damage.
“Honesty about Brexit from the two main parties has been sorely missing of late, so let’s hope that the dam will now break and we can have open conversations in this country.”