CBI and TUC bosses warn UK faces national emergency over Brexit

Britain’s foremost business lobby group and trade union body have joined forces to demand Theresa May urgently changes her approach to Brexit, warning the country now faces a national emergency. Writing a joint letter to the prime minister, the heads of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Trades Union Congress (TUC) said a plan B needed to be drawn up as quickly as possible to avoid a no-deal departure as early as next week. Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, and Carolyn Fairbairn, the CBI’s director-general, wrote in the letter published before the crunch EU summit in Brussels: “Our country is facing a national emergency. Decisions of recent days have caused the risk of no deal to soar. Firms and communities across the UK are not ready for this outcome. The shock to our economy would be felt by generations to come.”