Whilst I welcome reports in the Express newspaper that HM Government is allocating funds to deal with a ‘no deal’ scenario for Britain leaving the EU, I also believe that this contingency planning could have been done earlier. Obvious preparations for a no deal scenario, if publicised at an early stage, might well have persuaded the EU and its member nations that it was in their interest to come to an agreement that satisfied both the UK and the EU and treated both parties fairly.
Unfortunately Theresa May’s government did not do this and because she and her advisors didn’t prepare the ‘big stick’ of a no deal withdrawal, it put too many of the balls in the EU’s court. This lack of a big stick that could frighten the EU and its members is I believe, partially why Britain has got such a bad deal from the EU exit negotiations.
The Express said:
CHANCELLOR Philip Hammond has hashed together a £2billion no deal hand-out in order to prevent the UK from chaos if Theresa May walks away from EU negotiations with no deal.
The money will be directed towards transport, healthcare, energy, law enforcement and security as no deal planning is intensified. Additional cash will be handed out to deal with “civil contingency costs” if no agreement is reached. A Government source told the Sun: “The Chancellor knows what needs to be done and if action is necessary then you will see decisions very soon.”
By law, the UK is set to exit the EU on March 29 next year if a withdrawal agreement isn’t passed by Parliament.
Ministers in the departments that would be most affected by a no deal Brexit are planning to increase spending in key areas as an insurance against a non-negotiated exit.
Spending of the fund would also show the EU that Britain is serious about being able to walk away without an agreement if there is no movement on the backstop.
I commend the Chancellor for making this effort to fund the departments of state that will be most affected by a no deal exit, however it would have been better in my opinion if this preparation for a no deal exit could have been started on the 24th June 2016, the day after the Referendum. Knowledge that Britain was preparing for a no deal exit may well have concentrated the minds of the EU and its constituent nations during negotiations and may well have got Britain a better exit deal than Prime Minister May and her team have managed to get. In my opinion there was always going to be a need for some sort of temporary compromise over Britain’s exit from the EU, just as divorcing couples need to compromise on some contentious relationship breakup matters for the sake of any children produced by the marriage. Sadly, without the big stick of early no deal preparations, the EU has been able to bully Britain into a deal that satisfies neither the Brexit side nor the Remain side of the political divide. I don’t think the Chancellor’s preparations are ‘too little too late’, but it would have been better all round if these preparations had been done earlier and been very highly publicised.
