One of the Tory’s leading donors said he’ll cut his funds if we lose access to the European single market
A leading donor to the Conservative Party said he'll cut his funding if the government takes Britain out of the European single market.
Andrew Cook, chairman of engineering firm William Cook (and staunch Remainer), has said he couldn't support the party if it risked losing jobs in the UK by leaving the single market, Reuters reported. He has donated more than £1m to the party in recent years.
"I would find it impossible under those circumstances (to keep donating to the Conservative Party should it back leaving the single market)," the Times newspaper quoted him as saying.
"…It is very difficult to make a political donation to a party when, although I support it ideologically, I do not believe that my interests and my ideology are …(in agreement) with the principal Brexiteers."
Businesspeople and politicians have been divided on whether or not a "hard Brexit", which wouldn't ensure access to the single market, would lead to job losses.
Some say concerns that professionals will flee to other European financial centres have been overblown and that the solution is simple, while other figures show business confidence in the country falling over the next few years as threats fly about which companies might leave the UK.
Little has been made public about the government's Brexit negotiations, prompting more than two-thirds to lose faith that it will get Britain a good deal.