// Fortnum & Mason boss Tom Athron has urged Rishi Sunak’s government to agree a deal with Brussels on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland
// The chief executive said the lack of a deal has made it “almost impossible” for food retailers to export to the EU
Fortnum & Mason boss Tom Athron has urged Rishi Sunak’s government to agree a deal with Brussels on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland.
The chief executive told The Financial Times that without an agreement it is “almost impossible” for food retailers to export to the EU.
“Once [a deal] gets sorted, then actually the rest of the conversation around Britain’s trading relationship with Europe will begin to improve,” he said.
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Sunak has been attempting push a deal with Brussels over the line this week, rejecting calls from former prime minister Boris Johnson to take a more aggressive approach.
Fortnum & Mason was forced to temporarily halt its Europe deliveries, which equates to 10% of its business, due to Brexit.
The government needs to “invest some time improving its relationship with the EU”, which could only be done once the “architects of Brexit” were out of the picture, Athron said.
“The EU were always going to struggle to deal with them . . . Rishi is sort of one step towards that. And then whoever leads the next government I suspect, there will be another step.
“No one wins when you can’t export like this,” he warned.
“The EU doesn’t win, the UK doesn’t win, we would be much better off finding a way through this.”
Last month, Marks and Spencer chairman Archie Norman criticised the government’s plans to facilitate post-Brexit trade have been ‘overbearing and confusing’.
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