Boris Johnson was urged to boost growth as the British Chambers of Commerce warned that the economy stagnated in the final quarter of last year. The latest survey by the business lobby group found conditions in the services sector deteriorated compared with the third quarter and that manufacturing activity was “listless” in the three months to the end of December. The BCC is one of the country’s most influential business groups and its quarterly survey is closely-watched. It was based on responses from 6,478 companies in manufacturing and services employing more than 800,000 staff. They were surveyed between November 4 and November 25, before the general election last month that delivered an 80-seat Tory majority.
Buckling to Washington on food standards risks shortening British lives and piling pressure on to the NHS, the country’s largest farming union has claimed. Weeks before transatlantic trade negotiations are due to begin, the agriculture lobby is escalating warnings over the “very dangerous” prospect of a two-tier system of regulations for food produced domestically and overseas. Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers Union, said that a failure to set a fair baseline for British and foreign agricultural goods could drive UK farms out of business. Theresa Villiers, the environment secretary, has said that Brexit will lead to “a bright new future” for producers.
