Samantha Cameron says her fashion brand is finding post-Brexit trading with the EU “challenging and difficult”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, she said there were “teething issues” in trading with the bloc and appealed to government to talk to small firms.
Mrs Cameron said she discusses the problems with her husband, ex-Prime Minister David Cameron, who called the EU referendum and campaigned to remain.
“[We] definitely deal with having this problem at work,” she added.
Mrs Cameron worked as the director of fashion brand Smythson of Bond Street before her husband entered Downing Street in 2010.
In 2017, after he had left office, she founded her own company, Cefinn, focusing on contemporary womenswear.
In her first solo broadcast interview, Mrs Cameron was asked by Woman’s Hour host Emma Barnett if her company had experienced any supply chain issues since the UK agreed its post-Brexit trade deal with the EU.
She said: “There’s been a bit of that – I think a mixture of Covid and Brexit, actually, although there would be no issues trading with the US or outside the EU.
“Until they sort out some of [what] I hope [is] teething issues, definitely trading with the EU, if you’re bringing goods into the country from outside the UK, and then trying to sell them back into Europe, that currently is challenging and difficult.”
‘Frustrating’
Mrs Cameron said her message to the latest of her husband’s successors, Boris Johnson, was to “talk to all the businesses out there who are in a similar position to me, of which there are lots”.
She added: “It is the smaller businesses [affected] because we can’t afford to have warehouses in Europe and that sort of thing. And I’m sure there are ways of sorting it out.
“It does need to be looked at because otherwise we can’t grow our business [and] if we can’t grow our business, it is frustrating.
“Unless some of the expense and cost of doing that is looked at, it will be challenging.”
Mrs Cameron also spoke about the challenges facing the PM’s fiancee, Carrie Symonds, agreeing that criticisms of her over advising the PM were sexist.
The former No 10 resident said it was “very unfair to pick [Ms Symonds] out as having some kind of undue influence” and it was “demeaning” for Mr Johnson, who is “quite able to take decisions” for himself.
Asked what advice she would give the PM’s partner, Mrs Cameron said: “You’ve got to find your own way.
“Do the things that you enjoy, do the things that you feel that you’re good at and, you know, be supportive as you can to Boris.”
Source: BBC