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Tory backer says UK economy is ‘frankly doomed’ without Brexit renegotiation

Guy Hands says Conservatives are putting country ‘on a path to be sick man of Europe’

The billionaire businessman Guy Hands has accused the Conservatives of putting the UK “on a path to be the sick man of Europe”, as he issued a series of stark predictions about what could lie ahead for the post-Brexit economy, including higher taxes and interest rates and fewer social services.

The founder and chair of the private equity firm Terra Firma, a longtime Tory supporter, called for the government to “renegotiate Brexit”, stating that otherwise the British economy was “frankly doomed”.

The Conservative party needed to “move on from fighting its own internal wars and actually focus on what needs to be done in the economy”, Hands told Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday.

On the day that Rishi Sunak is expected to become Britain’s next prime minister, the third in less than two months, Hands called for a Tory leader with “the intellectual capability and the authority to renegotiate Brexit” and turn around the economy. “Without that the economy is frankly doomed,” Hands said.

Asked what this would mean for the country, Hands said without a renegotiation of Brexit, Britain would face “steadily increasing taxes, steadily reducing benefits and social services, higher interest rates and eventually the need for a bailout from the IMF [International Monetary Fund] like we were in the 70s”.

Hands, who estimated that 70% of his firm’s investments were in the UK, said he was worried about increasing poverty, including among “middle-class people” who would struggle to meet their mortgage payments amid rising interest rates.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...-renegotiation