“The British people voted to leave the European Union, and we will respect their will. In the coming days we will present a bill and before the end of March we will invoke Article 50. The Supreme Court ruling will not postpone it, it simply activates a parliamentary process.”
The words of Simon Manley, ambassador of the United Kingdom in Spain, during his meeting with this newspaper make it clear that Brexit will be a fact in the coming months. They are going to be consistent with what the British voted for, despite the fact that “it is not what David Cameron’s Government defended”, and that the fact that the Supreme Court has decided that the process must go through Parliament is not going to modify the set dates.
Not even the pressures from the economic sphere seem to raise doubts in Manley’s speech. In fact, he is confident that the relationship with the European Union “will continue to be constructive”, he is sure that his country “will not stop attracting companies and talent”, and he does not believe that London will lose its status as a global financial center. “It is a question of ecosystem. The City is the result of an ecosystem that has been created for hundreds of years. An ecosystem that works because there is a large number of services in the same space, due to the location of London and what the city offers to employees… You cannot create another City in one day, neither here nor in Frankfurt nor in Paris,” argues Manley.
Along these same lines, the British ambassador affirms that “the success of the United Kingdom throughout its history has been its openness to the world, and that has not changed. We will be Global Britain: a country that believes in free trade. There is no British protectionism”. And he continues: “We are the most open country I know in terms of trade. It is a fundamental part of our culture; we welcome foreign companies.”
The explanations and arguments to make it clear that Brexit is not isolationism are, logically, a constant throughout the interview. He rejects that the exit process goes against a time in which much of the world seems to demand just the opposite, more unity and globalization. “We are leaving the European Union, not Europe, we will continue to be geographically in the same place and with the same predisposition,” he insists.
In his presentation, Manley has the help of Manuel Fuertes, general director for Spain of Oxford University Innovation and president of Kiatt Group, a company that is dedicated to finding and identifying talents around the world with projects that come from scientific findings. “If you want to have a cluster of highly prepared international people, the place is the United Kingdom. That is not going to change. The large pharmaceutical, biotechnology and nanotechnology industries will remain there,” he says.
“Now we will simply have to create new communication channels – in my case between scientists – but that has already happened before between Spain and the United Kingdom,” adds Fuertes, who points out on several occasions the opportunities that London offers and gives the following example: ” On Fridays, at the after work pint, [which in Spain would be something like the beers after work] we meet with people from 15 or 20 different nationalities who have positions in companies with influence in different countries of the world. When I am with them, I have access to many places at the same time. And I have not seen that in any city in the world. It only happens in London”.
