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LONDON – From the purple stage of a ballroom in London on Monday, British Prime Minister Theresa May presented her draft contract to leave the European Union to an audience of business leaders who , not so long ago, have hidden their disgust for the prime minister.
She took office two years ago. She complained of corporate greed, threatened with repressive measures against excessive compensation and condemning free market acolytes as "citizens of nowhere". This summer, his foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, poisoned his relations when he wrote four letters explaining to companies how little he cared about their interests.
But May received a warm welcome on Monday – more heartening than anything she was able to get from alleged allies in the five days following her unveiling of her highly defamed plan to extract Britain from the United States. European Union.
His contract was, well, a contract and he gave companies some certainty.
That was enough for the business leaders sitting in front of her, although some urged the Prime Minister to relax the proposed immigration restrictions after Britain split from the union.
"It has put an agreement on the table, which is true for the first time in two-and-a-half years," said Craig Beaumont, Director of External Affairs and Advocacy for the Federation of Small Businesses, who occupied the Director's position. public. "Companies accept that she is in a difficult position, but appreciate her progress."
Carolyn Fairbairn, executive director of the Confederation of British Industry, said business executives remained concerned about some parts of Ms. May's plan, particularly by restrictions that would prevent migrants from entering the country. European Union to prevent migrants from the European Union to queue to work in the UK. after Brexit.
Fairbairn said companies were worried about where the new workers came from and rejected the "idea that anyone earning less than £ 30,000 could not contribute to our economy", which equates to around $ 38,500.
The importance of corporate support on these issues is a different issue.
Business leaders saw their political stock sink after trying unsuccessfully to warn people of the risk of leaving the union in 2016.
Now, they have to make a similar speech to Conservative MPs who, while sympathetic to business interests, tend to pay little attention to the decades-old issue of relations between the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom. Europe.
"There is an ideological attachment to Brexit that can replace other elements," said Professor Anand Menon, Director of the United Kingdom in a Changing Europe, a think tank. He described this as a "question that transcends the normal rules of politics".
Nevertheless, Monday's Confederation of British Industries meeting was a gentle launch for a business-driven campaign in the name of May's deal, which is expected to move up a gear once the deal is ratified by European leaders. Sunday.
This will set the stage for a mid-December vote on the agreement in the UK Parliament, as long as the deal will survive so long.
Mr. Beaumont said his group would soon share the results of a survey with small business owners.
The group plans to advocate, among other things, for government vouchers allowing small businesses to use consultants to prepare for post-Brexit trade agreements.
Mr. Beaumont expressed the hope that his group would have more weight than most politicians also needing to stay in the union, as small business leaders also needed close support to stay in the syndicate.
"When we go to Parliament, we will give a point of view that comes from neither wing of this rather ideological debate."
May's draft agreement may be flawed in the eyes of the majority of businessmen opposed to Britain's departure from the British union.
He foresaw a transition of nearly two years after the March split, during which companies could operate almost as if nothing had changed. He ensured that the whole of the United Kingdom would remain in a customs territory with Europe until the leaders developed a long-term trade agreement, avoiding internal tariffs or quotas.
Above all, it brought clarity, a point that Ms. May emphasized in her speech by avoiding the bravado of her party's Brexiteers and by appealing to practical concerns.
"Because we are not talking about political theory, but about the reality of people's lives and livelihoods," said Ms. May. "Jobs depend on what we get that right."
It was a measure of how companies were desperately trying to avoid a so-called Brexit at the edge of a cliff – in which Britain withdrew from the union without any other reason. no provision is made for crucial supplies to cross the border – that the audience has largely adopted its draft plan.
Few people in the audience had probably forgotten their clashes with the prime minister during her first few months in power.
Ms. May has dissolved an advisory group made up of her predecessor, David Cameron. She intervened to fix what she took to be broken markets. The general manager of the group that welcomed Ms. May on Monday accused her in 2016 of risk "closing the door" on Britain's open economy with a clear break with Europe.
But Ms. May, anticipating that the companies would give a draft agreement, has tried to strengthen her support in recent months by appealing to a former business banker, as a new envoy and putting in place five advisory councils.
The fact that the opposition Labor Party is led by Jeremy Corbyn, who wants to nationalize certain industries, is helping his cause in the face of commercial interests.
Analysts, however, question whether the government's recent campaign to scare people of the disastrous economic consequences of breaking union without an agreement has proved too convincing. With the help of some companies, Ms. May and her team have tried to make the departure without agreement so unpleasant that some fear that people will start to forget this possibility.
"They have painted a picture of non-agreement so bad that no one believes credibly that we will be allowed to fall into a situation of no agreement," said Joey Jones, former spokeswoman for Ms. May, now a strategic advisor of Cicero. a consulting firm.
