AITO delivers urgent warning to PM Boris Johnson

AITO has written an open letter to new Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging him not to opt for the ‘nuclear option’ of a no-deal Brexit which, it says, will cause ‘so much collateral damage and pain to so many’.

The letter, jointly signed by AITO chairman Derek Moore and director – industry issues Noel Josephides, told Johnson that ‘the whole Brexit scenario’ has already ‘messed up bookings in their entirety for 2019’.

Calling for an urgent meeting with the PM, Moore and Josephides said they were particularly concerned by comments made by former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on the Andrew Marr show ‘that he would willingly tell people whose companies went bust after a no-deal Brexit that their sacrifice was necessary’.

"We regard his comment, made in respect of all UK-based SMEs, to have been cavalier in the extreme. We believe, based on your actions since becoming Prime Minister, that you share the same views as Jeremy Hunt," they wrote.

"Whether our members and their employees voted leave or remain, they certainly did not vote to destroy their businesses by adopting a No-Deal Brexit. Neither did they anticipate the Conservative Party using them as sacrificial lambs – a great number of livelihoods, including those involving families of all ages, are at stake amidst the bluster and the campaigning that has gone on."

The letter also said the Conservative Government has already done much damage to the UK’s reputation abroad over the past three years.

It added: "We need to know from you, and to know urgently, what the prospects are for the travel industry, especially the specialist sector in which AITO sits. Our main markets are all EU members, and EU members are close colleagues of ours.

"The whole Brexit scenario has messed up consumer holiday bookings in their entirety for 2019, with the British public hugely confused about whether they should or shouldn’t book/could or couldn’t travel to Europe on holiday this year.

"A No-Deal Brexit will simply increase prices for all those travelling to Europe. The travel industry is not alone in despairing at its future if there is a No-Deal Brexit on 31 October.

"We urge you to think anew. Yes, we know that Brexit is your key aim – but does it have to be a No-Deal Brexit and to cause so much collateral damage and pain to so many? SMEs are, after all, the backbone of the UK’s economy.

"In our view it doesn’t need to be the nuclear option."

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