Theresa May has insisted that Brexit will result in the “best possible” trade deal with the European Union in an effort to reassure nervous USA financial giants.
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But Brexit campaigners said the figures also show that Europe’s financial industry would be clobbered if Britain’s withdrawal from the single market meant passporting rights were scrapped.
The UK has played a leading role in the fight against Al-Shabaab in Somalia, will host an global conference on Somalia in 2017, and has championed the work the UN Secretary-General has led to develop a strategy for preventing violent extremism, she said.
She added: “Faced with challenges like migration, a desire for greater control of their country, and a mounting sense that globalisation is leaving working people behind, they demanded a politics that is more in touch with their concerns; and bold action to address them”. “Almost 5,500 United Kingdom firms are using passports to do business in Europe, and over 8,000 European firms are using passports to provide services in the United Kingdom”, he added.
Under passporting arrangements, financial firms with headquarters in one European Union nation can operate across the bloc – but Brexit could put the City of London’s status at risk.
“I hope the message they took was that I recognise the importance of financial services and the City of London as an important global financial centre”.
The outcome of the British referendum led to the resignation of her predecessor David Cameron, who addressed the Assembly past year.
But Ms May, who was herself a reluctant member of the Remain camp, made clear she had no plan to stand back from the mandate delivered by the European Union to better control migration. President Barack Obama had warned that Britain could expect no special treatment and would be at the “back of the line”.
May, who says she will implement Brexit even though she argued against it before the vote, met Wall Street bankers and the heads of some of North America’s biggest companies on Monday night in an attempt to reassure them on Brexit.
“You have those controls here in America, an ability to decide who can come over and work in America, for example, so I think people wanted to see more control for the British Government, and that was one of the issues”.
“Just as we need the United Nations to modernise to meet the challenges of terrorism in the 21st century, so we also need to adapt if we are to fashion a truly global response to the mass movements of people across the world and the implications this brings for security and human rights”, she said. We will be looking for business.
A new study has revealed the level of worldwide financial disruption that would be caused by the United Kingdom losing its ‘financial passport’.
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“The loss of financial passporting rights would be a major blow to British business and jobs”, said Ms Long-Bailey.
