Brexit will cause “considerable” damage to the United Kingdom’s economy, the chairman of RBS has warned.
Sir Howard Davies said today that jobs would be lost in the City of London as a result of referendum result.
“If we go into Brexit we will find that jobs will leave the City,” he told Sky News’ Sunday with Paterson programme.
Asked what the impact of Brexit would be, he added: “I think it is going to be quite considerable over time because up to now people have centred their European activities – and we are talking particularly about the American banks, the Japanese banks, even the Chinese banks and they have chosen to put an enormous lion’s share of their activity in Europe based in London and they are now rebalancing.
“That’s going to happen whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations are. So the game is can we provide an outcome which minimises that cost?”
Asked to be clear on whether jobs will vanish in the City, Sir Howard said: “Yes.”
Ruth Davidson earlier today said Boris Johnson must prove to Theresa May he is loyal to her, amid speculation about the foreign secretary’s position.
The Scottish Tory leader told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show Johnson had backed the prime minister’s Florence speech on Brexit and May should “hold him to that”.
“He is a big intellect, a big figure in the party and if the Prime Minister believes he is the right person to be foreign secretary, then she has my full support,” she said.
May has repeatedly faced questions about whether Johnson – a potential leadership rival – is “unsackable” due to her weakened position after the gamble of a general election backfired.
The prime minister vowed today she would not “hide from a challenge” amid reports she could have a Cabinet reshuffle in an attempt to repair the damage to her authority.
May, who appears to have seen off an immediate attempt to oust her after her mishap-hit conference speech, is still vulnerable and has come under pressure to bring new faces into her top team in an effort to revitalise her administration.