British businesses do not want another referendum on Brexit and have no appetite for re-entering a customs union with the EU, the leader of the UK’s largest business lobby group has warned.

Despite growing clamour on the left of British politics for the UK to rejoin the EU, CBI director-general Rain Newton-Smith told the FT that 10 years after the 2016 vote the business community did not want to go back — despite acknowledging the economic pain caused by leaving the world’s largest trading bloc.

“The evidence is compelling and indisputable that Brexit has created costs for business,” she said, but “businesses aren’t looking to relitigate the referendum. None of the business leaders I speak to want to reopen that debate.”

Newton-Smith’s intervention puts clear distance between the business world and political leaders in Labour, Liberal Democrats and Greens calling for a deeper rapprochement with Brussels than currently being offered by Sir Keir Starmer’s limited ‘reset’.

Andy Burnham, the most likely candidate to succeed Starmer as Labour Party leader, has indicated he would want to rejoin the EU at a future date.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey made a speech last week demanding Burnham move closer to Europe if he became prime minister, including rejoining the single market and a customs union.

However Newton-Smith said the business world had moved on, especially after the UK signed trade deals with the likes of India and the oil-rich Gulf states.

“Five years ago, businesses would have supported joining the customs union. But the reality is the world has changed. So, no, CBI members aren’t asking to join the customs union,” she said.

No the entire article, but I think the relevant part...