On 13 December 2019 the NBCC Post-Election Breakfast took place at the magnificent London office of DLA Piper. The purpose of this event was to analyse one of the most important election results in recent times and the implications the victory of the Tories will bring to the UK economy and Brexit.
Alexandra Kamerling, Board Member of the Netherlands British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) opened the event and short after that Paul Hardy from DLA Piper showed the General Election result map 2019: who won in every
constituency across the UK as Conservatives secured a big majority.
After the opening remarks, the scene was set by Charles Grant, Director of Centre for European Reform. He gave an analysis of the election results and the reason people voted the way they did. He also stated that Boris Johnson is now free to extend the transition and go for a softer Brexit if he wishes.
After that, James Smith, Economist at ING, gave an economic outlook and explained that the impact on the UK economy. He said that Brexit uncertainty is now going to make a comeback. 2020 will not be great in terms of the UK economy (investment) due to this uncertainty on what kind of Brexit there will be and if a cliff edge can be avoided. He explained that in contrary to what you would expect from the Tories, focus on fiscal spending limits the free trade.James predicts that even if fiscal spending is increased, the uncertainty will limit growth of the UK economy in 2020.
Jan-Willem Thoen, Senior Director at PwC, explained what the result means for British-Dutch businesses. He highlighted that this election result finally gave certainty that Brexit will happen and that companies should be prepared. The coming year during the transition period, the relationship between the Netherlands and the UK will stay the same, but after that period of time the UK will be seen as a third country with new rules and regulations which will be challenging, especially for companies who have never trade with a third company before.
The insightful analyses from our three speakers led to the conclusion that businesses welcomed the certainty that the UK election brought - it was clear that Brexit was going to happen by 31 January 2020. But, equally, that that certainty was short-lived, given the recognition that 11 months for a trade deal was impossibly short.
The NBCC would like to thank its Gold Member DLA Piper for its support for this event.