BBC News UK

Nimisha Raja

A small business owner has told the Today programme that her company has stopped looking for new export markets in the EU until the deadlock over Brexit is resolved.

Nimisha Raja, who owns the firm Nim's Fruit Crisps, said: "It makes it very, very difficult to do new business in the EU and we've actually stopped that a little bit at the moment in exporting until we know what's happening, and what agreements are going to be in place for trade.

"We just want Brexit over and done with. We've got some sort of an agreement so let's move on with that, although I must say I had a skim through the agreement bill and it does feel a little bit light.

"We’re finding that we're going to have to import a lot more in the coming years and there’s a lot more legislation to read through, so we have to sign up to a lot of government portals which we have done.

"The government says they have published 750 documents for businesses to read and negotiate their way through Brexit. We don’t have time for that, so instead what we’re doing is actually building stronger ties here and on domestic business and try to grow our business."

Getty Images

CBI director-general Carolyn Fairbairn has called on the government to pass a Brexit deal so that businesses can move on from what she calls "gridlock in Parliament".

The date of the UK's exit from the European Union was put back to 31 January from 31 October, on Monday.

And Ms Fairbairn told the Today programme: "We clearly welcome the fact that there is a delay rather than a crash out, but the uncertainty is affecting so many businesses and the stockpiling has run to tens of millions for individual companies.

"That won’t stop because the new date is 31 January, so I think what businesses are feeling is that something has to change.

"Although no-one is jumping up and down for an election we don’t want these perpetual ongoing delays either.

"Investment is poor, so we've now seen five out of six quarters of declining business investment, and that is future jobs,"

She said the government should use the delay to agree a deal "so that we can lift that risk of no-deal and actually start getting back to business as usual"..