Business urged to drum up support for May’s Brexit deal
Executive says UK ministers asked leading firms to help secure the prime minister's EU divorce plan
London — British government ministers have asked executives at leading companies to use their influence to boost support for Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, one of the executives said, as a deadline looms for Britain to leave the EU. The request to give backing to the deal — which has already been rejected by parliament twice but looks set to be put to a third vote — was made in a conference call on Brexit on Wednesday that was “uncomfortable” and “awkward”, said the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Business minister Greg Clark, junior trade minister George Hollingbery and Jim Harra, a senior official in the UK tax office, asked business leaders on the call to try to persuade the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and other MPs to swing behind May’s position, the executive said. A government source said they did not recognise that interpretation of the contents of the call. A Treasury official declined to comment on the details of the call.
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