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French plan to poach top Brit high-flyers with job security in post-Brexit bid for world domination

Headhunters promising tax-free, five-year contracts to workers who cross the Channel in pursuit of a new career

FRENCH headhunters are trying to poach City high-flyers claiming Paris offers them more post-Brexit security.

The recruiters are promising tax-free, five-year contracts to workers who cross the Channel.

French fgancy ... headhunters are trying to poach City high-flyers claiming Paris offers them more post-Brexit security
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French fancy ... headhunters are trying to poach City high-flyers claiming Paris offers them more post-Brexit securityCredit: Getty Images

They are particularly targeting asset managers, planting fears that UK-based businesses will lose their freedom to operate in the EU without restrictions.

But a senior City source told Sun City: “This is clearly an exaggeration. The City’s here to stay. It doesn’t risk becoming a backwater.”

“Passporting” rights currently give Brit-based firms the right to do business in any of the EU’s 27 other states.

But Jens Weidmann, president of Germany’s BUNDESBANK, claimed that such rights will “automatically cease” post-Brexit.

The City source warned: “The French are coming and they’re trying to take the best of the British to work on the Continent in a post-Brexit world.

“They’re trying to create a climate of fear suggesting somehow the UK won’t be fit for business once it leaves the EU.”

Fears ... Manpower's UK managing director Mark Cahill said: “We’ve seen London’s competitors like Paris and Frankfurt making overtures to the City’s big firms.”
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Fears . . . Manpower's UK managing director Mark Cahill said: 'We’ve seen London’s competitors like Paris and Frankfurt making overtures to the City’s big firms'Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd

Recruiter MANPOWER last week reported an 800 per cent spike in finance job applications in Dublin since the referendum.

Its UK managing director Mark Cahill said: “We’ve seen London’s competitors like Paris and Frankfurt making overtures to the City’s big firms.”

But ratings agency MOODY’S played down fears of a City exodus. It said the impact on the City would be modest and manageable.

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