Responding to the Prime Minister’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference today, Helen Dickinson OBE, chief executive of the BRC said:??In what turned out to be the most dramatic speech of the party conferences this year, there was a welcome signal of reassurance from the Prime Minister to the thousands of EU nationals that currently live and work in the UK.
?The impact of the UK?s decision to leave the EU on our EU colleagues has been hugely underestimated. They play a crucially important role in the operations of the industry; from head office to stores, and they deserve this guarantee that they have will the right to continue doing so from Brexit day and thereafter.
?However, we?re still lacking the practical detail on what this guarantee from the Government looks like. We need certainty for our EU colleagues now. Certainty on how to acquire settled status, how much it will cost and what the timeframe is.
?Retailers and their employees will be looking to the next round of negotiations in the hope that they deliver this certainty, alongside plans from the Government on a future immigration system that meets the needs of the retail industry and its customers.?
