FAILURE to reach a Brexit deal would wreak havoc on British business, especially manufacturers that rely on just-in-time supply chains.

That’s the view of British Business Minister Richard Harrington, who in an interview Tuesday defended the right of companies to openly voice their concerns.

“It would be completely disastrous for business in this country,” Harrington said. Four months after Prime Minister Theresa May outlined her vision for Britain’s future economic relationship with the European Union, “it’s quite right that business should be thinking well what’s happening now,” he said.

With Brexit day less than nine months away, Britain and the EU have yet to begin substantive negotiations on the shape of their future trade relationship amid Tory divisions over customs arrangements and how to maintain an open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. May has convened a meeting of her top ministers for Friday at her country residence to thrash out a path forward.

Harrington’s remarks underscore the increasing influence of business in shaping May’s Brexit policy, with the prime minister now understood to be drawing up plans to keep Britain closely tied to European market rules for goods after Brexit.

While May has repeatedly said that a no-deal Brexit must remain an option, large manufacturers such as Airbus SE and BMW AG last month broke cover to warn they’ll have to pull investment from Britain if barriers are put up to trade with the EU, prompting criticism from senior Conservatives including Brexit-supporting Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

U.K. lawmakers who criticize firms for going public with their worries “don’t really understand how business works,” Harrington said. (SD-Agencies)