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Daily Record
Daily Record
Politics
Chris McCall

BrewDog boss James Watt claims Brexit has 'massively handicapped' UK businesses

The co-founder of BrewDog has blasted the UK's decision to leave the European Union and claimed it had delivered "zero benefit" to his business.

James Watt, who has helped the Scottish brewery become one of the biggest beer producers in the world, described Brexit as having been "tragic" for the UK.

Last week saw the seventh anniversary of the referendum that delivered a narrow victory in favour of those wanting to cut ties with the EU.

The Record has since ran a series of articles detailing the catastrophic costs of Brexit on the Scottish economy.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Watt was asked if his company was strongly against Brexit.

He said: "We have been, yes. It's had a significant negative impact on our business, which is really tough.

"We sell so much beer in mainland Europe. We own and operate our own buyers in France, Germany, Italy and Holland.

"Just getting our beer to those buyers is significantly more expensive and significantly more difficult.

"For me, it's just massively handicapped UK companies that do business in Europe, with zero benefit at all.

"I think it's been tragic for UK business and a lot of the economic issues the UK is facing - more inflation than other places, being harder to do business, is a result of the catastrophic decision to leave the EU. It's really crippled businesses in the UK."

Richard Thomson, the SNP business spokesman at Westminster, said: "The Tories and pro-Brexit Labour party have trashed the UK economy and inflicted long-term damage on businesses and the cost of living.

"Independence is Scotland's only route back to EU prosperity - and rejoining the EU is the only credible plan to deliver sustained economic growth.

"While Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer obsess over Brexit, the SNP is the only party offering real change with independence.

"There is no doubt that Brexit has made the cost of living crisis worse - and it has set the UK economy on a path to long-term decline."

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