THE pressure is on now more than ever to find a way to make a botched hard Brexit work for business.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the impact on the pound after it was announced that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to step down, and was one of the overseas titles to use the combination “Borexit”.

An analysis on the response to the news was offered in the US on Thursday.

The WSJ’s Jon Sindreu says: “The Prime Minister that oversaw UK’s departure from the European Union is now heading for the exit himself.
“Boris Johnson resigned on Thursday following a string of scandals and a mass exodus of ministers and senior government aides. The pound rose on the news, though it remains near its weakest in years.”

He writes: “The pound reacted to the news by rising against both the US dollar and the euro.

“A country’s financial assets rarely react positively to political turmoil, but this pattern has been observable ever since the walls started closing around Boris Johnson’s administration last month.

“The moves haven’t been huge, but they are a sign that, in investors’ minds, the positives from his turbulent departure outweigh the negatives.”

The Herald: Prime Minister Boris Johnson wit family and staff in the background. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire.Prime Minister Boris Johnson wit family and staff in the background. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire.

He adds: “Whoever Britain’s next leader turns out to be, sterling is likely to be onside.”

It leaves the potential trajectory more open, and solid suggestions are beginning to gain support.

Business editor Ian McConnell found Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s position on Brexit this week baffling. He writes: “There is a simple way to minimise further damage, and that is to rejoin the single market. This can, as London mayor Sadiq Khan rightly pointed out this week, be done without rejoining the EU. So that means the Leavers can still have their Brexit.

“However, rejoining the single market would give the UK back two colossal benefits: frictionless trade with the world’s largest free trade bloc and free movement of people.”

The economic crisis came under the spotlight in deputy business editor Scott Wright’s column this week, as he asks: “Are employers preparing for more ‘trench warfare’ as the cost of living soars?”

He writes: “The phrase employed was perhaps a little over the top. But comments issued earlier this week by Mark Mulholland, a partner at Glasgow-based accountancy firm Wylie & Bisset, gave an insight into how employers are responding to the unfolding cost of living crisis.

“Reacting to the surging cost of food, fuel, energy, clothes, travel and rent, after official figures showed annual UK consumer prices index inflation increased to 9.1 per cent in May, its highest rate in 40 years, Mr Mulholland declared that small and medium-sized enterprises should revisit the ‘trench warfare’ mentality with regard to costs that characterised the early days of the pandemic two years ago.”

Also this week, business correspondent Kristy Dorsey reports that Skyscanner co-founder Gareth Williams and Anna Lagerqvist Christopherson, co-founder of Edinburgh’s Boda Bar Group, have invested a six-figure sum in a Scottish start-up looking to capitalise on the growing trend for remote working.

The investment marks the first external funding raised by Swurf, which was set up in in the Scottish capital last year by events and marketing professional Nikki Gibson.