FTSE chiefs to air Brexit concerns during summit with May

Some of Britain's leading corporate bosses are expected to raise concerns about Brexit's potential impact on their UK workforces during talks this week with Theresa May.

Sky News understands that bosses from companies including BT, ITV (Frankfurt: A0BLQP - news) , Legal & General (LSE: LGEN.L - news) , Lloyds Banking Group and Virgin Money have been invited to a meeting on Thursday with the Prime Minister.

Senior (Other OTC: SNIRF - news) figures from leading business lobbying groups such as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) will also attend, according to a Whitehall source.

The gathering is billed by Downing Street as a meeting of Mrs May's business council, although the membership rotates on each occasion, and the group has not met since last October.

Officials close to the Prime Minister point out that she has had "extensive" interactions with private sector bosses in recent months, including on a recent trade mission to China, and most recently last week, when she met the chief executives of about a dozen major European companies to discuss Brexit.

According to people briefed on the list of attendees, those invited to Thursday's meeting include Jan du Plessis, chairman of BT Group (Other OTC: BTGOF - news) ; Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group; Dame Carolyn McCall, ITV chief executive; Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money; Carolyn Fairbairn, the CBI director-general; Helena Morrissey, head of personal investing at L&G; Moya Greene, chief executive of Royal Mail (LSE: RMG.L - news) , and Ivan Menezes, who runs Diageo (LSE: DGE.L - news) .

The meeting with Mrs May is expected to encompass a range of economic issues, and will not be solely confined to Brexit.

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, and the Business Secretary Greg Clark are also due to attend.

However, senior business figures say they are becoming increasingly concerned about the likely restrictions on the movement of EU nationals who work for their companies after Brexit.

They also want reassurance about the likelihood of the UK securing a satisfactory transition deal at next week's EU Council meeting.

None of the companies or business groups contacted by Sky News would comment on Wednesday.