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Ministers order full implementation of no-deal Brexit plans No-deal Brexit plans put 3,500 troops on standby
(34 minutes later)
All government departments must fully implement their emergency no-deal Brexit contingency plans, cabinet ministers have agreed. Emergency no-deal Brexit contingency plans must now be implemented across government, cabinet ministers have agreed, including reserving ferry space for supplies and putting 3,500 armed forces personnel on standby to deal with any disruption.
No 10 confirmed on Tuesday that cabinet ministers would “ramp up” no-deal planning, and that the departments would be expected to make it their main priority.No 10 confirmed on Tuesday that cabinet ministers would “ramp up” no-deal planning, and that the departments would be expected to make it their main priority.
Brexit putting thousands of ski resort jobs at risk for British workers
Downing Street said it would send advice on preparing for no deal to all UK businesses and suggested they should begin implementing their own contingency plans as they saw fit.Downing Street said it would send advice on preparing for no deal to all UK businesses and suggested they should begin implementing their own contingency plans as they saw fit.
Citizens will also be informed how to prepare, including information on a “range of channels” that could include TV adverts and social media. Theresa May’s spokesman said the cabinet “agreed that delivering the deal that the prime minister agreed with Brussels remains the government’s top priority and our best no-deal mitigation”.
Cabinet ministers agreed to allocate money from a £2bn contingency fund to departments such as the Home Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The spokesman said it was the government’s “continued duty to prepare for every eventuality, including a no-deal situation”. Ministers acknowledged the steps that had already been taken, Number 10 said, including 320 “no-deal workstreams” across all departments and 106 no-deal technical notices, Number 10 said.
HMRC will prepare a 100-page pack for all UK businesses on preparing for no deal, involving about 80,000 emails to businesses.Downing Street said delivering the prime minister’s deal “remains the top priority”, but when presented with three options on whether to increase, maintain or wind down preparations, there was unanimity in cabinet to implement all no-deal contingency planning across departments. “Cabinet agreed that with just over three months from our exit from the EU, we have now reached the point where we need to ramp up these preparations. This means we will now set in motion the remaining elements of our no-deal plans. Cabinet also agreed to recommend businesses ensure they are similarly prepared enacting their own no-deal plans.”
Some cabinet ministers believe it is time to show more central command in no-deal planning. Previously, departments had been given some freedom to decide when and what they spent. Downing Street suggested preparations could include reserving space on ferries in order to ensure a supply of food and medicines.
Speaking later in the Commons, the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, said his department “will have 3,500 service personnel held at readiness, including regulars and reserves, in order to support any government department on any contingencies they may need”.
Citizens will also be informed how to prepare, including information on a “range of channels” that could include TV adverts and social media, Number 10 said.
Ministers agreed to allocate money from a £2bn contingency fund to departments such as the Home Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
HMRC will prepare a 100-page pack for all UK businesses on preparing for no deal, involving about 80,000 emails to businesses.
During the meeting, the work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, told her colleagues preparing for a no-deal Brexit was a sensible precaution but “just because you put a seatbelt on doesn’t mean you should crash the car”.
But the justice secretary, David Gauke, who said publicly at the weekend he would resign rather than be part of a government that deliberately pursued no deal, told the meeting that a “managed no deal is not a viable option”.
“It’s not on offer from the EU and the responsibility of cabinet ministers is not to propagate unicorns but to slay them,” he said, according to a cabinet source.
A “managed no deal” is the approach favoured by Brexit-backing ministers including Penny Mordaunt and Andrea Leadsom, who believe the government could pay part of the £39bn the government has agreed it owes the EU, to “purchase” a status quo transition period.
It’s not too late to admit a managed no-deal Brexit is a dangerous fiction | Gaby Hinsliff
Downing Street said delivering the prime minister’s deal “remains the top priority”, but when presented with three options on whether to increase, maintain or wind down preparations, there was unanimity in cabinet to implement all no-deal contingency planning across departments.
All agreed that they would implement contingencies across Whitehall. Previously, departments had been given some freedom to decide when and what they spent on no-deal planning.
Brexit: Labour and Tories clash over call for confidence voteBrexit: Labour and Tories clash over call for confidence vote
The environment secretary, Michael Gove, is among those who have been allocating the most resources, recently advertising for 90 staff for an EU exit crisis centre to respond to emergencies following a no-deal Brexit.The environment secretary, Michael Gove, is among those who have been allocating the most resources, recently advertising for 90 staff for an EU exit crisis centre to respond to emergencies following a no-deal Brexit.
Defra, along with the Home Office and the Department for International Trade, are to get the most significant budgets for no-deal preparations.Defra, along with the Home Office and the Department for International Trade, are to get the most significant budgets for no-deal preparations.
Several ministers are expected to push for no deal to become Whitehall’s “central planning assumption”. Several ministerspushed for no deal to become Whitehall’s “central planning assumption” but Downing Street said that it remained the position that a deal was “the most likely outcome.”
The issues are not solely financial but also relate to decisions over whether to take civil servants off important domestic priorities, one cabinet minister said. “Do you take civil servants off the social care green paper, for example? That’s the choices in front of us,” the minister said. Speaking after the meeting, the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, said the default option is for the UK to leave without any exit arrangement in place unless MPs back the deal.
“Parliament needs to back the deal because the consequence of not doing so is we risk the default of no-deal and a responsible government must prepare for that eventuality,” he said. “That is what we agreed at cabinet. That is what we are going to do.”
The issues around no-deal planning are not solely financial but also relate to decisions over whether to take civil servants off important domestic priorities, one cabinet minister said. “Do you take civil servants off the social care green paper, for example? That’s the choices in front of us,” the minister said.
The communities secretary, James Brokenshire, said on Tuesday it was “right and proper” for no-deal planning to be stepped up.The communities secretary, James Brokenshire, said on Tuesday it was “right and proper” for no-deal planning to be stepped up.
“We have been taking no deal seriously for some considerable period,” he said. “I’m not going to pretend otherwise that we are stepping up our preparations for no deal. Although, frankly the way to avoid that, as I’m sure others would say very clearly, is having parliament voting to secure that deal.”“We have been taking no deal seriously for some considerable period,” he said. “I’m not going to pretend otherwise that we are stepping up our preparations for no deal. Although, frankly the way to avoid that, as I’m sure others would say very clearly, is having parliament voting to secure that deal.”
The cabinet meeting marks the first steps in an attempt by May to persuade rebellious Tory MPs that the alternatives to her Brexit deal are worse before the meaningful vote in the week of 14 January.
It’s not too late to admit a managed no-deal Brexit is a dangerous fiction | Gaby HinsliffIt’s not too late to admit a managed no-deal Brexit is a dangerous fiction | Gaby Hinsliff
May wants the increasingly serious no-deal preparations to dominate the Brexit discussion at cabinet, even though ministers worried about the stalled negotiations with Brussels are openly canvassing alternatives if her deal is voted down next month. The cabinet meeting marks the first steps in an attempt by May to persuade rebellious Tory MPs that the alternatives to her Brexit deal are worse before the meaningful vote in the week of 14 January.
In the Commons on Monday, May told MPs that a chaotic no deal would happen unless they voted for her deal, or parliament decided to abandon Brexit altogether. Leave-supporting ministers emerged cheered from the meeting, because the idea of holding a series of indicative votes on Brexit, which has been gaining ground in recent days, was firmly rejected by the prime minister, who is determined to bring her deal back in January.
The prime minister said rejecting her deal would “risk the jobs, services and security of the people we serve” at the price of “turning our backs on an agreement with our neighbours that honours the referendum and provides for a smooth and orderly exit”. Mordaunt told the meeting she objected to the idea indicative votes idea, because it was a way to “gerrymander” an outcome.
May also told MPs that negotiations were continuing between the UK and the EU, saying she was seeking “further political and legal assurances” over the unpopular Northern Ireland backstop, in an effort to demonstrate that it was temporary.
However, European commission officials in Brussels said that no further EU-UK meetings were taking place. “The deal that is on the table is the best and the only deal possible – we will not reopen it. It will not be renegotiated,” a spokesman said.
May is set to be embroiled in another Commons row on Tuesday after the government refused to allow time to debate a non-binding no-confidence vote in her leadership as prime minister, put down by Labour. Eurosceptic Tories and the DUP have said they will back the government.
Labour deliberately chose a form of words that was different to a formal “no confidence vote” in the government – which would be required to begin the process of trying to force a general election under the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act.
The shadow housing secretary, John Healey, said a full motion of no confidence would be tabled “when it’s clear to the country the government has failed decisively”.
“It is still a question of when, not if, we move to confront the government with a full vote of no confidence,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
A Downing Street source said: “We won’t allow time for what is a stunt. The FTPA applies if Labour wants to put down a motion under the terms of that.”
Brokenshire said the motion was “not responsible opposition” and said it was “gamesmanship” from Labour.
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