Increasingly, the prospect of a no-deal Brexit has been weaponised by both Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson to leverage support among the Conservative Party's membership base -the group that is going to decide the country's future. Surveys show that more than 70% of these voters - likely to be men no longer working, given that their average age is 57 but four in 10 are over 65 - would welcome a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. I and the majority of us working in the built environment have made our views clear on how catastrophic a no-deal Brexit would be for construction. I have personally told Greg Clark the secretary state for business and have spoken frankly to the chairman of the Conservative Party, Brandon Lewis. I even mentioned it to Johnson's father Stanley when I bumped into him at a private business dinner. Our concerns about the effects of Brexit certainly appear to be borne out by the latest survey from IHS Markit/CIPS, which says the construction sector has been hit by its biggest fall in output in a decade, with business activity and new work orders tumbling at the fastest rate since the last recession. The latest numbers indicate the steepest reduction in overall construction output since the recession bit back in April 2009, and means the sector has contracted for four out of the past five months. This has mainly been put down to a lack of confidence in the market due to Brexit.
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