Sunday 17 June 2018 4:33 pm

Tesco boss and CBI president John Allan calls for ‘orderly’ Brexit

The chairman of Tesco and Barratt Developments, John Allan, has hit out at the government and called for an “orderly” Brexit that is best for business.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Allan said that leaving the EU is “going to have an impact on the economy” and said the UK needs to the process to happen in “the most orderly way that maximises our chances of success thereafter.”

Allan, who is also president of CBI, which campaigned against Brexit during the referendum, said the business organisation would “argue for rational decisions.”

“The vast majority of business would like to see some greater certainty on what the eventual solutions are going to be,” he said. “That’s just not feasible at the moment. People are going to have to wait for that. That’s life.”

However, the Tesco boss was critical of the government’s handling of the Brexit process, suggesting it was distracting politicians from bigger issues.

“I think we’re going through a particularly difficult phase at the moment because I think this whole Brexit saga is sucking a lot of the energy out of politicians and government,” he said.

“It’s reducing the amount of time and effort that people can apply to solving some of the really important long-term issues in this country.

“How do we get the economy working in the right way? The industrial strategy. What’s a long-term solution to care for the elderly, as we have an ageing population? How are we in our education and skills system, right?”