jamie robertson has been speaking to cbi presidentjohn allan, who gave his reaction to mr corbyn's speech a vision for the future of this country. and he has identified, i think, some of the problems we have as a society. there is too much inequality. i think business and government need to work together to remedy that. i think we don't think that all of his solutions would work. in particular, we think nationalisation would be a step backwards rather than a step forwards. it would divert resources from much more important priorities. but you know i think it was good he came along. we appreciated him coming along and he told us about his vision. his agenda. what about his views on brexit and the idea of on brexit and the idea of a customs union? and a customs union, let's face it, was what the director—general of the cbi, has been asking for. indeed. i think we would be keen to see something like a customs union, whether it's called the customs union or something else, as part of the long—term solution. clearly, if we get through, if parliament voted in favour of the current proposal, the

i'm jamie robertson.ing for a new chairman after sir charlie mayfield said he would step down in 2020. this comes a few months after the partnership posted a 99% fall in half—year profits in september. sir charlie became chairman of thejohn lewis group, which also includes waitrose supermarkets, in 2007. marks & spencer has reported falling clothing and food sales and warned that it sees little improvement for the rest of this year. like—for—like sales, which strip out the impact of new stores, were down 2.2% for the six months to the end of september. and yet more pain on the high street. mulberry‘s sales have fallen 11% during the first six months of its financial year after the leather goods brand was hit by the failure of house of fraser. but it's doing better abroad, and says trade was strong in china, taiwan, hong kong and japan. the boss of persimmon, jeff fairburn, has been forced out after a row over his £75 million pay award. persimmon said the issue was having a "negative impact" on the firm's

i'm jamie robertson.ptember. that's a good number, about what the bank of england had been expecting, and it's thought to be boosted by people out shopping in the warm weather. however, within those three months, there is a slightly worrying trend — the economy grew fast injuly, and then started to slow down in august and september. although over three months the word the numbers. so all the world good numbers. the high street may well have been the first to feel the slowdown. the accountancy firm pwc says about 1k shops are closing every day. it says it's the toughest trading climate in five years. over 1,100 stores disappeared from britain's top 500 high streets in the first six months of the year. cash machines, you may be surprised to learn, pay rates. but who pays those rates? since 2010, it was thought to be the premesis they were attached to — a shop or office. but a ruling by the appeal court has decided the bill will be shared by government and the local authority. the shops and supermarkets will

our business presenter jamie robertson is at the conference in greenwich, south east london thank yound business, in many ways, responding positively and saying, yes, this is what we want, with a few caveats. over the last two years, the cbi has been trying to influence the eu and the uk in the negotiations. i have got the head of eu negotiations here with me, nicole sykes. you have been lobbying, you would prefer to say influencing, the way negotiations have gone. have you succeeded? have you put the point across of what business wants? i think business ultimately has to points. one is we need to avoid that catastrophic no deal outcome. we hear so much about lorries queued up at dover, what are we going to do about medicines, foods. genuinely worrying. number one for business is can we remove that no deal cliff edge? to do that we need transitional arrangements and this deal does deliver that. the second thing businesses are asking for is that long—term relationship. can we get frictionless trade? and also having a say over those rules? that is still to be worked on but we think this

jamie robertson joins me from our central london office.tsie. but if you drill down further and look at house—builders, retailers, there‘s retail stokes really badly yesterday and no sign of recovery there today. some have fallen seven, eight, 9% yesterday. that is worrying because the fear their isjust that is worrying because the fear their is just about a general slowdown, a general domestic slowdown, a general domestic slowdown which will hit them badly. the big companies have not been affected that badly. that‘s all the business news. the first few hundred migrants in the caravan travelling through mexico have reached the us border. many want to apply for asylum but are ill—equipped to negotiate the us immigration system. will grant has been travelling with the caravan through mexico. the us is now tantalisingly close. the first members of the caravan are at the border crossing in tijuana after a journey of over 2,500 miles, but, having made it this far, many run the risk of being immediately turned back. misinformation is so widesprea

our business presenter jamie robertson is at the conference in greenwich, south east london.m joined by the chief economist of the nfu, andrew francis, and also byjesse baker from provenance. we will go into exactly what your company does in a second. andrew, what was your reaction as regards the farming industry? how does it seem?” reaction as regards the farming industry? how does it seem? i think it is absolutely critical that we avoid any cliff edge scenario that might happen under a no deal. this would be absolutely catastrophic for the farming industry. let's take exports for example, we explored 40 the centre of lamb in this country and if you were to impose wto tariffs, that more or less ends any competitiveness of lamb to the eu market. but at the moment we are not faced with a no deal, we are faced with a withdrawal agreement. we would welcome the progress that has been made. even after the transition period? indeed, because it would avoid that cliff edge scenario. that is something we definitely want to avoid. jesse, you have a fascinating business. a small busines

our business presenter jamie robertson is at the conference in greenwich, south east london with reactionis that it gets us withdrawal agreement is that it gets us into that transition period, which will last from april 2019 to december 2020 and which will last from april 2019 to december2020 and in which will last from april 2019 to december 2020 and in that time we will be operating under the same rules and regulations that we do at the moment. a business, it means we avoid that cliff edge of a no deal, which we know would be catastrophic for the economy. it would have a big impact onjobs for the economy. it would have a big impact on jobs and for the economy. it would have a big impact onjobs and life heard. but after that, that's about negotiating our new relationship with the eu, and that's where we've got some outline of that deal. but that needs to be negotiated over the next 20 months. when you come to those kind of negotiations, are we going to be talking about workers‘s rights? will the eu be demanding a kind of level playing field? when you talk to the business community, they