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Top Tories say Brexit is positive for the north's businesses

REPRESENTATIVES from the north's business community believe Brexit offers positive opportunities for the region, according Secretary of State James Brokenshire.

Speaking after holding the first meeting of the newly-established Business Advisory Group at Stormont yesterday, Mr Brokenshire said those around the table looked forward to exporting to new markets and seeing regulation rolled back.

He and the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU David Davis rejected the notion that the business organisations who attended the meeting, none of which supported Brexit, were negative about the future prospects for trade.

But when pressed on who at the meeting had identified any positive aspects in the outcome of June's referendum, the ministers declined to be specific, insisting it had been a private meeting, conducted confidentially.

The four groups invited to yesterday's discussions were the regional arms of the CBI, Institute of Directors, Federation of Small Businesses and the NI Chamber of Commerce.

The Northern Ireland Office say the meeting is the first of many, with the agrifood sector expected to be the focus of the next round of talks.

"As you'll appreciate we have private discussions for good reason so that people can be candid and can share their views," Mr Brokenshire said.

"But that does not mean we don't see the real benefits and the real opportunities here of making a real success of our departure from the EU but also on that issue of trade, on that issue of new markets, on that issue of productivity as well, has been something the prime minister has underlined in all of her statements."

Mr Davis said the UK would be seeking tariff-free access to the EU.

He said a good trading relationship was in the interests of other EU members as well as Britain, but he warned the UK had to take control of its borders and control the number of people coming in.

"What we will seek to do is ideally to have a tariff-free access, but this is a matter of negotiation, and we will be negotiating over an issue which I suspect we will find is in the interest of the other members of the EU as well as us, to get a good trading relationship in the long run," he said.

Referring to the cabinet meeting chaired by Theresa May on Wednesday, where agreement that any Brexit deal would include controls on EU migration subsequently sparked speculation that full access to the single market could be blocked, he said he agreed "one hundred per cent" with the prime minister.

Mr Davis said the UK and Ireland wanted to maintain an open frontier.

"We have had a common travel area throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland for many, many decades before we were part of the EU and we will maintain that common travel area afterwards," he said.

"We managed to do that without an immigration problem in that time."

The two top Tories yesterday held separate meetings with Fist Minister Arlene Foster and Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, who it is understood was deputising for Martin McGuinness.

Mrs Foster said afterwards that Northern Ireland should have a direct role in Brexit negotiations.

The DUP leader said she did not share Mr Ó Muilleoir's concerns that Northern Ireland would lose out on EU funding.

"I am satisfied that we have clarity in relation to the spending of European funding up to 2020 and that is of course the only time up until which we can get clarity because that is the period of time up until which European funding has been paid up," she said.

Mr Ó Muilleoir said the British and Irish governments needed to explore ways to respect the vote of the majority of people in the north, who voted to remain in the EU by 56 per cent to 44 per cent.

"I met today with David Davis and James Brokenshire to discuss the impact of the recent EU referendum and made clear to him the fact that the majority of people in the North, unionist, nationalist and republican voted to remain in the EU," he said.

"We expect the British government to recognise and respect that vote."