this is the business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. deal, no deal, or no brexit? businesses brace for more uncertainty as theresa may prepares to step down and rivals line up to replace her. plus: beyond meat — beyond expectations! soaring sales and a 400% share price surge reward investors' appetite for the vegan burger maker. and on the markets: us shares moving higher on reports the us could delay imposing tariffs on mexico over immigration. that's since been played down by the white house. those talks resuming on friday will be closely watched by global markets.

we start here in the uk, where a new period of huge uncertainty is about to begin for businesses, both inside and outside britain, over the future of brexit. today prime minister theresa may will step down as leader of the conservative party. she will remain acting prime minster until a new leader is chosen. but who replaces her will decide the shape of britain's departure from the eu at the end of october, less than five months away. at the moment there's a crowded field of 11 candidates, but that number will be whittled down to two by tory members of parliament in the coming week. then it's up to the party membership to chose one of the two. all have declared they want the uk

to leave the european union, but they differ on the big question: how? try to revive the deal negotiated by theresa may. try to get a new deal. delay brexit past the 31st october deadline to buy more time. or leave without a deal so called "hard brexit". financial institutions and business groups have warned of the economic damage of leaving without a deal. the international monetary fund says it would immediately tip the uk into a 2—year recession. the uk government's own assessment is that the economy could be up to 9% smaller within a decade and a half. and last week the confederation of british industry wrote to candidates warning of a ‘severe‘ impact on much of uk business. the businesses are resilient but let's be absolutely clear, there is no such thing as a managing no deal.

it is impossible to prepare except for the very biggest companies. 85% of small companies cannot prepare. i do not have the money, they do not have the time to put contingency plans stop the world will carry on spending, of course, but we would have lost jobs spending, of course, but we would have lostjobs and investment and damaged our economy. tamzen isacsson is chief executive of the management consultancies association, whose members work with most of britain's top companies and are parts of the public sector. thank you for coming in. i wanted to start with a story we're running on the bbc website in to this. the government preparation built so far topped 97 million. a lot of that, according to the national audit office, was on consultancy fees.

your members have done rather well out of brexit? the government have had an unprecedented workload in every scenario for brexit. we have been proud because we have a world —class been proud because we have a world—class consultative sector to provide multidisciplinary skills, technical skills to government and that has enabled them to work quickly, with intensity to plan for these are brexit scenarios. it would have been foolish not to plan and to use external have been foolish not to plan and to use external resources have been foolish not to plan and to use external resources to do that and we are proud of the part our companies have paid in providing this. we have quite a few scenarios. none of them seem to be, at this stage, off the table. do you agree with the cbi‘s assessment that are no—deal brexit, a hard brexit would be disastrous? we have talked to our members and they have talked to

businesses across the uk and are no—deal brexit would be very damaging. we have seen a number of businesses planned well for a no—deal brexit, financial services, pharmaceuticals but there are other businesses, medium—size, small, retail and others which have not done enough planning. rather than talking ourselves into a recession, there are still options at this stage and you have got time to plan. a great deal of free advice out there both on the website and any government in terms of what businesses can take, looking at supply chains, making sure they are in the best possible position for the 31st of october. five months away. is that really realistically enough time to prepare for a scenario we do not even know what it will be? the uk is the centre of

innovation and entrepreneurship. businesses must be self sufficient given this political impasse and they must continue preparing and thatis they must continue preparing and that is the real message at the moment that, despite all the political chaos at the moment, there are options for business to consider different routes for their level of preparedness. keep calm and carry on. thank you for coming in. let's go to new york now where vegan food is still very much flavour of the month — at least for traders on the stock exchange. shares in plant based burgerfirm beyond meat have soared 400% since their debut last month. and investors' confidence has been rewarded by the company's first set of results as a public company, which showed first quarter revenue more than tripled. the first of the plant —based food company traded on the stock market,

beyond meat had attracted a lot of attention. it's bogus i've proven popular with consumers. its business has been boosted by high—profile distribution deals with numerous american supermarkets and also the appearance of it's bogus at a fast food chain, burger king. the early buzz about the company may have been justified, as well as a sharp rise in revenue, the company has said it expects revenue for the whole year to be more than twice what it was in 2018. sales it seems are growing nicely and yet the company still has not reached profit. overall it lost more than $6.5 million in the first three months of the year. for now though, investors seem to have an appetite for beyond meat shares in line with the public‘s appetite for its bogus.

let's go to our asia business hub where rico hizon is following the story. an australian court has ruled drivers should not be considered employees. —— camilla is in singapore. can you tell us a little bit more about it? this is a major victory for cuba down under. it means they are not entitled to receive any benefits that employers receive. uber. it comes after a two—year investigation that looked into whether uber was misrepresenting drivers as people who ran their own business. in reaching the decision they looked at drivers contracts, logon and log off records, payment and also interviews with drivers. this was a conclusion, that they are not subject to formal operational obligations by uber to pay these workers. that was a key

consideration. this is in contrast to what happened in the uk where investigators decided that uber drivers are employees. uber is appealing the decision in the uk. now let's brief you on some other business stories: talks between mexico and the us aimed a averting a new trade war will resume for a third day on friday. president trump has threatened to hit all imports from mexico with rising tariffs, starting with a 5% tax from monday, unless it curbs illegal immigration over the border. on thursday mexico offered to send troops to secure its southern border with guatemala. the german government is considering a merger between struggling commerzbank, of which it's the biggest shareholder, and dutch rival ing, according to a report by bloomberg. merger talks between commerz and deutsche bank collapsed last month and the report claims the focus has now shifted to a cross—border deal which might

mean fewer job losses mastercard has suspended an advertising campaign with the brazilian football star neymar, after he was accused of raping a woman at a luxury hotel in paris last month. mastercard says it will stop using images of the paris st—germain player until the situation is resolved. neymar strongly denies the allegation. and now what's trending in the business news this morning? bloomberg looks ahead to the g20 finance meetings this weekend in fukuoka, japan. not surprisingly, finance ministers and central bankers will be focused on risks from the us—china trade war and an expected turn in global monetary policy, away from interest rate rises and towards rate cuts. analysis from the wall street journal: how fiat chrysler's proposed merger with renault crashed. it says the deal was doomed by the collision of cold financial logic with politics and pride.

"the french felt rushed. the japanese felt betrayed. the italians were frustrated" and wired has been at an amazon conference where it found the world's richest man in bullish mood. amazon on will get bigger despite all sorts of probes into the company. and don't forget, let is know what you are spotting online, use the hashtag #bbcthebriefing. that's it for the business briefing this hour. a quick look at the markets before we go. you can see this is what is going on in the asian section. investors not sure what is going on

at the moment. brent crude in a bear market for oil, falling more than 20% since its peak in april. plenty more coming up a little bit later. see you soon. labour has narrowly won the peterborough by—election, denying the new brexit party the chance to get its first mp. nigel farage's party lost by just 683 votes, pushing the conservatives into third place. the liberal democrats were fourth. iain watson has the drama from the night. the result that seemed to be on a nice edge. i declare that lisa forbes is a duly elected... cheering

and applause. but it was labour that cut through, narrow victory over the brexit party with the majority of 683, with the conservatives in third place. the results seem to be on a knife edge all night. sometimes the brexit party were ahead sometimes labour. labour supporters are delighted they hung onto the seat. this cts to be a two horse race —— used to be a two horse race. labour delighted they came out in front. brexit party supporters had high hopes but their leader, nigel farage, kept a low profile. in the end, just to view rallied to the new party. the new labour mp put her victory down to not banging on about brexit. did come up but not as much people think. they cared about the

letter a ll people think. they cared about the letter all over the community, the police, the lack of police on the street, drug dealing happening without fear of being caught. these are all the issues that people in peter's —— here spoke to. are all the issues that people in peter's -- here spoke to. labour hung ona peter's -- here spoke to. labour hung on a new party has made a big impression butjust hung on a new party has made a big impression but just not hung on a new party has made a big impression butjust not enough to secure the first brexit party mp. coming up at six o'clock on breakfast, charlie stayt and nina warhurst will have all the day's news, business and sport. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: the united arab emirates has blamed a "state actor" for last month's attacks on four oil tankers in the gulf. the us has pointed the finger at iran. the eighth women's world cup begins in france later. the host nation will face south korea in the opening game in paris. the world health organization is warning the world is entering a "new phase" where large outbreaks

of deadly diseases like ebola, cholera and yellow fever are the "new normal". now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the times, who say the queen risks being pulled into a "terrible conflict" over brexit, after a tory leadership contender refused to rule out suspending parliament to force through a no—deal exit. the arab news report iranian and us officials are in the early stages of negotiating an agreement to allow tehran to sell limited quantities of oil in exchange for goods. an interesting one, there. the independent focusing on climate change and outgoing prime minister theresa may will legally commit to ending the uk's contribution to global warming by 2050 before she leaves