Jim Armitage: MPs must listen to Sir Mike Rake if we’re to avoid decades of loss

Sir Mike Rake knows a thing or two about running businesses. Big businesses that matter; BT, KPMG, easyJet, Worldpay.

He’s run them across the world and seen them through scandals, geopolitical strife and worse.

So, when he says we need a decent, decade-long run-up to Brexit, politicians should listen.

Theresa May’s acknowledgement that we need a transition period was a major breakthrough for common sense. But two years is utterly inadequate.

Changing big, international businesses to adapt to new visa conditions, single market trade treaties and the shake-up of 43 years’ worth of legislation will take years of planning and implementation.

The longer they have to plan, the less chance businesses have of messing it up.

There’s another strong argument for a long transition period. Bosses are worried that, after they’ve reorganised their business once to cope with the brave new Brexit world, the rules will change again a few years down the line as the politicians in Brussels drag through the detail. Surely it’s far better to allow businesses to hold fire on their Brexit deployment until they know what they’re shooting at.

Brexiteers pooh-pooh these concerns. Self-interested bleating by overpaid managers about a little short-term discomfort is a small price to regain control over our borders, they’ll say.

But there is no way this will be just a short-term loss.

Take James Bardrick, the guy in charge of Citi’s UK operations. A man with 30 years at the cutting edge of banking. Rather than devoting 100% of his time and energy to creating the products and technology to keep Citi on top, he’s spending a third of it — a third! — on Brexit planning.

Beneath him, he has scores of skilled bankers who’ve also been redeployed from building businesses to preparing for Brexit.

Multiply that across every major bank in the City and you get a feel for the epic waste of talent that’s happening in London.

We’ll look back on these years as an era when distracted City firms failed to invest as much time and effort as their rivals on tech and innovation. That’s a given.

At least if we offer them a decent period to plan properly before Brexit, we might limit some of the damage.

Minority investors in M&C hotels feel legged over.

The takeover bid accepted by its board undervalues the shares, they argue. Well, the bid is led by M&C’s chairman and major shareholder, so you can appreciate their suspicions.

Makes me even more queasy about 5% of Saudi Aramco heading here.