Business leaders today welcomed the crucially important post-Brexit free trade deal between the UK and EU, saying households could breathe a collective sigh of relief .
The British Retail Consortium hailed the agreement after months of talks and frantic last-minute wrangling, saying that four-fifths of UK food imports come from the bloc.
The Christmas Eve deal was dramatically secured by negotiators from the UK and EU this afternoon just one week before current trading arrangements expire.
It follows a torrid year for businesses which have been hammered by the coronavirus pandemic and resultant lockdowns which have seen high street footfall plummet.
Scots firms close to broke after waiting months for SNP support to be paid, Ruth Davidson warns
Ms Davidson disclosed that 15,000 firms were still waiting for financial health unveiled by SNP ministers five months ago.
23 December 2020 • 7:04pm
Ruth Davidson at First Minister s Questions
Credit: Getty Images Europe
Thousands of businesses risk going bust when Scotland enters lockdown again on Boxing Day unless Nicola Sturgeon dramatically speeds up the delivery of her government s support, Ruth Davidson has warned.
Ms Davidson disclosed that 15,000 firms were still waiting for financial health unveiled by SNP ministers five months ago and accused Ms Sturgeon of treating business like an afterthought.
Nicola Sturgeon reacted as the post-Brexit trade agreement was reached A POST-BREXIT trade deal has been agreed by negotiators from the UK and the European Union after months of talks and frantic last-minute wrangling. A UK source said the deal delivered “everything that the British public was promised during the 2016 referendum”. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen were in close contact over recent days to help get the deal over the line. But negotiations led by the EU’s Michel Barnier and the UK’s Lord Frost continued throughout the day as final details were hammered out.
A man walks outside House of Fraser on Victoria Street in Westminster, London. Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancelled Christmas for almost 18 million people across London and eastern and south-east England following warnings from scientists of the rapid s IT was natural for the focus to fall on families who saw their much-anticipated Christmas plans evaporate when the temporary lifting of coronavirus restrictions for the festive season was dramatically scaled back on Saturday. But it did not take long for the full, devastating effects of the next wave of lockdowns on business to become clear too. While efforts to suppress the rapid spread of a new variant of coronavirus are understandable from a public health perspective, this will not dull the fresh pain business owners will be feeling right now, or ease the fears of those worried about the long-term implications for their jobs.
It means garden centres and homeware stores will have to close from Boxing Day. Garden centres were permitted to reopen at the end of May, the first sub-sector of retail to be allowed to re-open following the introduction of the national lockdown in late March. The Scottish Retail Consortium said shops have taken every mitigation possible to keep customers and staff as safe as possible . It said papers from public health advisers SAGE and its Welsh counterparts, the Technical Advisory Group, have explained the closure of shops would only have a “very minimal impact” on R values and reducing transmission of the virus.