This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
WSTA urges UK lawmakers to ‘get a grip’
The Wine & Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) has warned that the UK’s parliament and government must come to an agreement following the third rejection of prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal “before the growing damage is irreversible”.
The UK is due to leave the EU on 12 April
On Friday (29 March), May’s deal was overruled for the third time in the House of Commons by 344 votes to 286. The defeat came on the same day that Britain was originally supposed to leave the European Union (EU).
The rejection of May’s plan raises the chances of a long delay to Brexit or Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal on the new deadline of 12 April.
“Like most businesses, those in the UK wine and spirit industry are beginning to despair over how to complete essential tasks, such as plan their movement of goods,” said Miles Beale, chief executive of the WSTA.
“Many firms had, on the advice of the Commission, had to reschedule shipments either side of the original Brexit deadline – unnecessarily as it turns out, and it remains very hard to plan.
“Businesses cannot sustain any more delays and they need some clear direction. Parliament and government have got to get a grip and find a consensus which moves us forward before the growing damage is irreversible.”
A second vote on alternatives to May’s deal will take place today (1 April).
None of the eight alternatives put before the House of Commons last week gained a majority.