Phillip Hammond reckons it is in everyone’s “mutual interests” to include financial services in the deal but it most certainly is not. Now the UK is leaving, the EU has no incentive to ensure London’s financial district continues to thrive, which is why Europe has repeatedly rejected any suggestions of London having access to the single market. [...]
The City of London is an integral part of the UK economy. More than one million people work in finance-related jobs and estimates put the sector’s contribution to the UK economy at £124.2bn in gross value. These jobs and this contribution are now in serious jeopardy and a number of major banks are quite openly making plans to move to the continent. JP Morgan has warned of 4,000 UK job cuts, Goldman Sachs has started to move people abroad, taking up space in Paris and Frankfurt, and Swiss investment bank UBS said the bank “will definitely” be moving people out of London. [...]
During the eurozone crisis, having euro clearing taking place in London proved to be a major difficulty for the ECB as it tried to mitigate and control the crisis. There will soon be nothing stopping Europe from enforcing a policy like this and it works massively in their interests to pursue it. Manfred Weber, the head of the European People’s Party, the largest group in the European Parliament and a political ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, has openly said that it was not conceivable that euro-denominated business could remain in London.
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