Senior financiers are alarmed at growing political momentum behind a so-called “hard Brexit” that they fear will erode business confidence, trigger corporate departures and damage the City of London.
Leading bankers who have held talks with government ministers have told the Financial Times they believe Theresa May, the prime minister, will end up taking Britain out of the EU’s single market and customs union.
They fear policy is being shaped by pro-Brexit ministers like Liam Fox, international trade secretary, who said in July that Britain would probably leave the customs union, and Brexit minister David Davis, who says it is “improbable” that Britain would stay in the single market.