Brexit made some businesses “suddenly uncompetitive” as costs and red tape increased, says the CEO of the British Independent Retail Association

A brutal Financial Times investigation has unveiled the “all pain no gain” trading conditions many British businesses face post-Brexit.

Shadow International Trade Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds has written to Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch urging her to reach an agreement with Brussels. / Time is running out to strike a deal with Brussels over post-Brexit rules which could hamper British car exports, Labour warns today.

“Car crash!” exclaimed managing director Andrew Varga, whose Brexit progress I have been following since the referendum. News of the latest Brexit U-turn landed on him on Tuesday out of the blue. All his years of preparation for a new UK product safety mark, all his thousands of pounds wasted, all the uncountable hours and effort were rendered pointless, at a stroke.

One small business owner said her net profit margins had dropped to zero in the years since Brexit.

Despite claims over taking back control, UK is forced to comply with rules on which it has no say.

The move has been dubbed "the most explicit acknowledgement by the UK government that Brexit trade barriers are inflationary."

I said that I would break the ‘summer recess’ of this blog if a Brexit event of sufficient interest or importance occurred and it has, with the government’s announcement today of an “indefinite extension to the use of CE [Conformité Européenne] marking for British businesses”.

Britain on Tuesday said it would retain the European 'CE' safety mark for products indefinitely rather than scrap it following the country's departure from the European Union, in a move welcomed by businesses as a pragmatic step.

The majority of English regions and Wales are seeing a downward trend in their share of manufacturing exports to the European Union (EU) suggesting a potential structural shift in the UK’s trade patterns, according to the latest analysis published by Make UK and accountancy and business advisory firm BDO.

Sources have confirmed that FLI Distribution has ceased trading with effect from this week. / The difficult trading conditions facing cycling and many industries are thought to have played their part, including the post Covid-lockdown disruption and the impact of Brexit and the complexities it brought to EU/UK trading.

The founder of bicycle storage company Cycloc has said that the impact of Brexit on his business led to a 25% drop in sales. / The company, which has designed custom wall-mounted storage solutions for customers including Mark Cavendish, has witnessed a £100,000 drop in revenues since new rules were put in place in January 2021.

His two cents on Brexit? "It's just made things so difficult."

Brexit was unquestionably a disaster for the UK’s amusement and gaming industry, said the trade personalities that we asked. / “For our business it was a catastrophe. We lost most of our export trade almost overnight"

Cumbria Chamber of Commerce has responded to an economic survey showing half of firms surveyed are planning to raise prices in the next three months despite cost pressures easing.

The co-founder of ethical cosmetics company Lush has blamed Brexit for its fall in European demand.

Northern Ireland has been hardest hit, with exports to the EU falling by a third between 2018 and 2021, analysis of official figures shows.

The long term future of a major vehicle plant and 1,500 jobs could be put in jeopardy if part of the Brexit treaty is not renegotiated, its plant director has warned.

At this point, asymmetry of UK-EU trade dynamics verges dangerously on the edge of being normalised. Food import checks have been postponed four times over the past two years, symbolic not only of the unlevel playing field that continues to penalise British poultry meat exporters but adding to inflating production costs as a reminder that Brexit is Unfinished Business.

The UK’s approach to trade since it left the European Union lacks substantial objectives beyond signing as many free trade agreements (FTAs) as possible, and has now hit a dead end, according to new research from The Economy 2030 Inquiry.

Politicians and industry call for Government to level up EU import rules.

BrewDog CEO James Watt has warned that Brexit “has been tragic for UK business”, including his own.

Leaving the EU has “massively handicapped UK companies that do business in Europe", James Watt has said.

Output, new orders and jobs in the sector fell to a four-month low in May, according to closely watched economic data.

The City has been plunged into something of an existential panic in recent months. Fears of international decline have crystallised in the form of a listings drought and a crack squad of City grandees are scrambling to try and steady the ship.