Liverpool business leader Frank McKenna of Downtown in Business urges UK Government to move quickly to reset the UK’s trading relationship with the EU five years after Brexit. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool city region business owners are getting increasingly frustrated about the impact of Brexit on their activities, a Liverpool business leader says.

Now Frank McKenna, group chairman and chief executive of political lobby organisation and business networking club, Downtown in Business, is urging the government to go faster with its efforts to reset trading relationships with the European Union. 

Five years on from the UK’s break from the EU, which came about following a national referendum, Frank says that forging closer links with the bloc could “quickly give our economy a rocket-fuel boost”.

Also a director of pro-EU political pressure group Best for Britain, Frank claims that in the past five years the UK has lost goods exports worth £27bn and that good exports have shrunk by £2.8bn.

Some city region businesses have taken steps to minimise the hassle of trading with the EU. For example, Bootle-based brand marketing specialist Wild Thang has established a base in the Republic of Ireland.

However, Frank says an “urgent resetting” of the UK’s trading relationship with the EU would support the government’s economic growth ambitions.

He explained: “I listened with interest to the Chancellor’s speech this week, where she outlined a number of initiatives to grow the UK economy.

“There was much to applaud, but not enough emphasis, for me, on the one thing that would enable us to significantly and quickly give our economy a rocket-fuel boost.

“Many people who voted to leave the EU, did so on the understanding that trade between the UK and Europe would not be disrupted. That has clearly not been the case.

“Indeed, such has been the huge increase in red tape and bureaucracy in terms of exporting to the EU, many small and medium enterprises – who are the key economic drivers in this country – have simply given up on the European market.   

“In economic terms, withdrawal from the EU has been devastating for our country. This month marks five years since we officially exited, and the economic impact figures are eye watering.”

Frank also says that sectors from farming to construction, hospitality to care, have been hit, as employers have found it increasingly difficult to fill vacancies. He added the Government needed to speed up its policy of resetting relationships with the EU.

“I sense that Labour is still nervous of the charge of ‘betrayal’ should they do the pragmatic thing of getting a more progressive deal with the EU,” he said.

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“However, nothing betrays the country more than continuing this scandalous self-harm that we can now evidence. Nobody is suggesting that we rejoin the EU. 

“But we must accelerate new deals, new collaborations, and new opportunities with our nearest and largest trading partner. Otherwise, the Chancellor’s growth agenda will be hugely difficult to achieve.”