City ‘superwoman’ Nicola Horlick backs Lib Dems to battle against Brexit

"Superwoman": Nicola Horlick has backed the Lib Dems to battle plans to leave the European Union
Alex Lentati
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City “superwoman” Nicola Horlick today backed the Liberal Democrats to lead the battle against Brexit and launched a stinging attack on Cabinet minister Liam Fox.

The financier and mother-of-six has previously shied away from taking sides in the political arena.

But she says she was stung into speaking out after a “barrage” of abuse on Twitter for warning of the perils of Britain quitting the EU.

“Until now I have kept my political views private,” she told the Standard.

“It would be fair to say that most business figures are Conservative. But that Conservative reputation for economic competence now lies in tatters, and I find it hard to understand how anyone who cares about Britain’s economic prosperity could remain a Tory.”

Nailing her colours even more firmly to the Lib-Dem mast, Ms Horlick, 55, claimed that for Remain voters still fighting to block Brexit the “obvious person” to turn to for leadership was the party’s chief Tim Farron.

“I urge all who voted Remain to re-kindle the passion of the protests that followed the vote,” she appealed. “For those who want us to stay in Europe and, at the very least, in the single market, the Liberal Democrats are the obvious choice.”

Ms Horlick, a leading fund manager in the City for more than 30 years and now chief executive of crowdfunding service Money&Co, also tore into International Trade Secretary Liam Fox for branding some businessmen as “lazy” and playing too much golf, and arguing that British firms were failing in their “duty” to sell overseas.

“I’ve no idea how hard the Trade Secretary works, but I can tell him that business leaders I know don’t have much time to practise their swing,” she said. “Indeed, many consider their main handicap the threat by Liam Fox and his Conservative colleagues to pull us out of the world’s most lucrative free trading area, the single market.”

Ms Horlick, whose daughter Georgie died from leukaemia in 1998 aged 12, describes herself as an “eternal optimist”. But she said ministers who believe quitting the single market is not a “major problem” are “dangerously mistaken”.

At the Lib-Dems’ conference in Brighton today, European spokesman Nick Clegg warned City chiefs must “get their act together fast” to keep Britain in the single market. The ex-leader urged them to “speak out before this government whips away their biggest asset from right under their noses”.

Lib-Dem economics spokeswoman Baroness Kramer, former Richmond Park MP, warned financial firms were looking to move from London to Frankfurt, and fin-tech ones to Berlin.

A Government spokesman said Mr Fox “did not criticise UK business and his remarks have been wholly mis-represented.”

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