UK FinMin says buffers in place for Brexit chaos

BRITAIN’S finance minister pledged yesterday that “fiscal buffers” would be in place to deal with the potential chaos of the country crashing out of the European Union without a deal in March.

Philip Hammond was speaking ahead of his speech in parliament today in which he is to lay out Britain’s last budget before Europe’s second largest economy breaks up with the other 27 nations in the bloc.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer voiced optimism that the two sides could still reach an agreement despite the current impasse in negotiations.

But he told the BBC that he “can’t give an absolute guarantee because there have to be two parties — it takes two to tango.”

And he stressed that he was keeping financial firepower in reserve in case Britain crashes out without a deal and a period of financial mayhem ensues.

“What I will continue to do is maintain fiscal buffers, a reserve of borrowing power against my fiscal rules so that if the economy as a result of a nodeal Brexit — or indeed because of something else we haven’t anticipated — needs support for the coming months and years, I have the capacity to provide that support,” he said.

“That depends on what the markets are doing, it depends at the circumstances at the moment.”

Officials in Brussels say they are prepared to hold another summit as soon as they see substantial progress on the outstanding issue of the Irish border.

A new UK-EU frontier will emerge between Ireland and Britain’s Northern Ireland on March 29.

But the sides still cannot agree how to maintain frictionless trade that accounts for the different customs and regulatory rules between Britain and the EU. Hammond said that getting a deal “will minimize any negative effects” of the divorce.