It’s November 1st and somehow Britain is still in the EU. Boris was unable to keep his “do or die” pledge and Brexit has been delayed, again, until January 31st. With the risk of a No Deal Brexit subsiding, at least in the short term, the Prime Minister was finally able to get the opposition to agree to the General Election he’s wanted since the start of September. Coincidently, Brenda from Bristol has stopped answering the door.

The Brexit Party stand out as an unknown quantity. While they won the European elections, the First Past the Post (FPTP) system tends to close the door on insurgent parties. Counter to popular wisdom, Stephen Bush argues the Brexit party may be an asset to Boris, noting that “the Conservatives actually did slightly better overall in seats where Ukip stood than where they stood down, because disgruntled Labour voters, flirting with Ukip, reverted back to Labour rather than backing the hated Tories.”

The other unknown is whether the Liberal Democrats can maintain their jump in the polls. FPTP has a habit of squeezing out smaller parties.

The polls are hinting at a Conservative majority as Labour struggles to hang on to the Remain votes they won in 2017. But as we learned back then, a lot can change over the course of an election campaign.

So what does this mean for entrepreneurs? Every party will be making a pitch to business and we’ll be interrogating their plans on tax, immigration, and regulation closely.

Why talent matters?

This week I blogged about a new US study on the impact of immigration on startups. It found that startups who won the H-1B visa lottery (and therefore were able to hire skilled migrants) were more likely to receive additional rounds of VC funding, to patent, and to successfully exit through IPO. It’s a stark reminder of the rewards of being open to international talent.

You can read the post here.

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