More than half - 58 percent - of the top executives at Britain's biggest firms that responded to the Ipsos MORI "Captains of Industry" poll said the vote to quit the bloc has had a negative impact on their businesses. Two-thirds of the chief executives, chairmen and directors interviewed for the survey said they believed the business situation would worsen in the next 12 months.
“Business in this country is already feeling the pain of the economic upheaval of leaving the EU,” said Ben Page, CEO of Ipsos MORI. “According to respondents there is no sign that this is likely to ease this year.”
The research, conducted between September and December 2016, involved interviews with 114 chief executives, chairmen, managing directors and others from the FTSE 500 companies. It revealed the extent of business leaders’ underlying concerns over Brexit, despite positive economic data since the referendum vote last June.
The results could embolden lawmakers as they scrutinize the prime minister’s plan for Brexit negotiations in Parliament. May is refusing to compromise in the face of a fresh challenge to her divorce plans, even as a number of rebel Members of Parliament in her own Conservative Party are said to be planning to defy her authority and back amendments to the draft law.
