UK firms slam post-Brexit EU trade as they face ‘same nightmare week after week’

UK firms fear trade war with EU could make exporting to the bloc more difficult

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Business chiefs have hit out at post-Brexit trading rules, with one describing life outside the EU as "the same nightmare week after week".

Mark Brearley, who runs Kaymet, which makes tea trolleys and other kitchen equipment, said both the cost and red tape involved in the exporting of goods to the EU has increased.

He said that a large proportion of his time is spent with "things going wrong" and that the EU feels like "the hardest place in the world to ship things to sometimes."

His comments in an interview with The Guardian come as Brussels and London remain locked in a row over Brexit's Northern Ireland protocol.

Prime minister Boris Johnson has threatened to take unilateral action to change parts of the protocol that govern trade between Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Brussels has said it could retaliate by placing tariffs on UK exports to the EU, potentially sparking a trade war between to the two.

Mr Brearly said he is concerned by that prospect: “There’s a sense of, ‘Oh God, here we go again.”’

Danny Hodgson, who runs Rivet & Hide, which sells quality men's clothing from stories in London and Manchester, has also seen the business affected by Brexit.

He said that the EU customers he had spent over a decade building sunk by some 50 per cent in the first month after the UK left the EU and have not recovered.

“It’s really frustrating," he told The Guardian. “I hear Johnson boasting about free trade and all the rest of it.

"I don’t know how he’s got the brass neck to talk about us doing free trade when basically he’s the one who’s imposed sanctions on our business."

He added: “We were freely trading with the EU and now we’ve had tariffs imposed on us through our Brexit deals.”

The government has previously said that the UK being out of the EU will allow it to sign more trade deals with countries around the rest of the world, boosting firms at home.