Davos 2019: Philip Hammond addresses Brexit uncertainty

It's the final day of the summit in Davos

What is the World Economic Forum in Davos?

As the World Economic Forum summit in Davos winds down, Brexit came to the fore as a topic for conversation.

Philip Hammond ruled out a second referendum, but repeated his comments on the “betrayal” that a no-deal Brexit would represent.

Other topics on the agenda included the cost of inequality, a charge often levelled against the annual summit, and the future of the global economy.

For all the latest news from Davos, follow our liveblog

Key Points

• Final day of the summit in Switzerland
• Philip Hammond has made headlines with his comments on Brexit
• Christine Lagarde due to speak on the changing global economy later today

[25 January 2019 08:40 · Caitlin.Morrison]

Speaking at the summit, Philip Hammond ruled out a second referendum on Brexit.

“There are real problems around the idea of a second referendum and there is clear no majority in the government around that,” he told Bloomberg, and warned that another vote on EU membership could fuel populist sentiment in the UK.

He also repeated his statement that a no-deal Brexit would be a “betrayal” of the British people.

[25 January 2019 09:44 · Caitlin.Morrison]

Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg will be addressing the summit today.

Earlier this week, she called on global leaders to set aside their economic goals and take “real and bold climate change action”.

Today, she will appear alongside IMF boss Christine Lagarde and WEF founder Klaus Schwab to discuss climate disruption.

[25 January 2019 10:04 · Caitlin.Morrison]

Greta Thunberg has a chastening message for delegates: “At places like Davos, people like to tell success stories, but financial success has come with an unthinkable price tag on climate change. We have failed.

“It’s a simple issue. We need to stop emissions of greenhouse gases. Either we do that or we don’t. Either we prevent 1.5 degrees of warming, or we don’t.

There are no grey areas when it comes to survival.

“Adults like to say that they want to give their children hope. I don’t want your hope. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day.

“I want you to feel as it the house is on fire, because it is.”

[25 January 2019 10:59 · Caitlin.Morrison]

One message from Davos that will likely gain widespread support is a call for a four-day working week.

Adam Grant, a psychologist from the Wharton School in Pennsylvania, said: “We have some good experiments showing that if you reduce work hours, people are able to focus their attention more effectively, they end up producing just as much, often with higher quality and creativity, and they are also more loyal to the organisations that are willing to give them the flexibility to care about their lives outside of work.”

Meanwhile, economist and historian Rutger Bregman noted that a shorter working week is not that radical an idea.

“In the 1920s and 1930s, there were actually major capitalist entrepreneurs who discovered that if you shorten the working week, employees become more productive. Henry Ford, for example, discovered that if he changed the working week from 60 hours to 40 hours, his employees would become more productive, because they were not that tired in their spare time,” he said.

[25 January 2019 12:59 · Caitlin.Morrison]

As the summit draws to a close, Brexit is a hot topic. Irish leader Leo Varadkar has been answering questions on the subject and calling for the UK to come up with a workable plan.

“We could work with a Norway-plus model. We could work with a Canada model with special arrangements for Northern Ireland," Mr Varadkar says.

"But ultimately it's the people who caused all this and started this who have to come up with the solutions. We can help."

He says the EU would be "open to making changes" to the Political Declaration on the future relationship between the UK and the EU.

He also thinks it is  “very unlikely” that Brexit would never happen.