A hard Brexit of the United Kingdom from the European Union would be "absolutely and utterly mad" for both sides and politicians who think otherwise need to "knock some sense into their heads," jet-setting entrepreneur Richard Branson says.
Branson has called last year's vote by Britons to leave the European Union "one of the saddest things that's ever happened to Britain and to Europe," and said that's an almost unanimous view among the business community.
Branson said entrepreneurs like him are used to having problems thrown at them, and Brexit is just one more obstacle to overcome.
To Branson, it means trying to persuade governments to maintain as many trade links as possible as the U.K. and Europe negotiate challenging Article 50 discussions with European lawmakers.
Branson also points to an anecdote about Donald Trump to indicate the vengeful nature of the U.S. president.
Trump, Branson said, had "just been bankrupt and he spent the whole lunch talking about five people who he'd asked for help who'd refused to help him — and how he was going to spend the rest of his life destroying those five people.
"The way he speaks about people, the way he talks about minority groups, the way he deals with climate change and so on," Branson said, "they are palpably wrong therefore it would be morally wrong to try to kowtow to him."
Branson is in Canada to bring attention to the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative, a partnership between private companies that's aimed at giving funding and mentoring opportunities to Canadian entrepreneurs, especially women.
