Amazon’s UK boss sparks fury with ‘Project Fear’ warning that No Deal Brexit would cause civil unrest
Doug Gurr, head of Amazon in the UK, made the prediction during a meeting with Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab
AMAZON bosses have sparked fury by warning there will be "civil unrest" if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.
The internet giant was accused of "peak Project Fear" after its top exec in the UK made the prediction and claimed he was engaged in emergency planning for the scenario.
Doug Gurr, head of Amazon in the UK, made the startling claim in a meeting of around 40 business representatives with Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab on Friday, according to The Times.
His warning stunned other guests at the meeting - with some reported to have expressed scepticism about the drastic prediction.
Mr Gurr said it was part of his worst-case scenario contingency planning for a No Deal Brexit.
But Tory MPs have hit out at the prediction and claimed it was part of the campaign to keep Britain closely tied to the EU.
They also mocked the firm's reputation for minimising its tax bills by cleverly exploiting global rules.
Marcus Fysh tweeted: "Time to make @AmazonUK contribute to rather than asset strip the UK retail environment."
Simon Clarke added: "This may be Peak Project Fear? Always dangerous to call it, of course, because there are always new heights of nonsense to be scaled."
And Robert Halfon joked: "More likely to be civil unrest when Amazon delivery drones drop packages in wrong garden/or front drive."
The Sun Says
IT’S got to be the heat. Hysterical Remainers are buzzing round like angry wasps whose nest has been fumigated.
]Listen to them drone: no-deal Brexit, they say, will mean no food, no medicines and no flights out. Amazon, that well-known web retailer and soothsayer, predicts riots within days of our exit.
It is a miracle we ever fed or healed ourselves before we joined the Brussels tariff club. And a mystery how every country outside it manages to do so.
A no-deal could be rocky for a bit. That’s why the Government is finally preparing for it. But if Remaniacs think panic helps their cause they are wrong.
The only riots will come if the Brexit vote is not meaningfully fulfilled.
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An Amazon spokesman refused to confirm or deny the remarks were aired at the meeting on Friday.
A spokesman said: "Like any business, we consider a wide range of scenarios in planning discussions so that we're prepared to continue serving customers and small businesses who count on Amazon, even if those scenarios are very unlikely.
"This is not specific to any one issue - it's the way we plan for any number of issues around the world." Mr Raab's spokesman did not respond to a request for comment last night.