Michael Spencer: PM right not to seek Brexit trade deal extension
City grandee Michael Spencer has urged the government not to extend the December deadline for a Brexit trade deal, saying the Prime Minister is right “to take a hard line on this.”
The billionaire financier, who voted to remain in the EU, now believes that the UK is well-placed to secure a good deal and thrive outside the bloc.
Appearing on The City View podcast, Spencer said Boris Johnson was elected last year after promising “to resolve this agonising period in British politics”.
Seeking an extension to Brexit trade talks and the UK’s transition period would therefore be the wrong thing to do, he argued.
Spencer told City PM he “certainly wouldn’t be offering [an extension] if I were the PM right now”.
Extending the deadline for a Brexit trade deal beyond December of this year would play into the EU’s hands, he said. And he warned the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, “knows that time is on his side if he can get a delay on the negotiations”.
Michel Barnier ‘now faces tougher opponent’ in Brexit trade deal talks
Spencer added: “Barnier is a consummate negotiator, that is absolutely proven by the way he vanquished the previous prime minister so fulsomely.
“He played a blinder in his negotiations a couple of years ago but he was playing with a different adversary then, and a tougher one now.”
He dismissed suggestions that the EU would be able to lure financial services away from London. Instead Spencer said “the idea that the UK has somehow become trivial by leaving the EU is a laughable idea”.
“The UK is a world leader in so many areas, one of which is financial services and there is no reason why we shouldn’t retain our position as a world leader in financial services,” he added.
The billionaire expects a Brexit trade deal to be done by the end of this year, “for the benefit of the UK and the Europeans, too”.