Hammond frozen out as May reveals Brexit vision

PHILIP HAMMOND is to be frozen out of a series of speeches outlining Britain’s blueprint for Brexit.

instead, the job of putting ‘meat on the bones’ of the UK’s road map to departure will be driven by Theresa May and other senior ministers.

her Chancellor – who has been criticised repeatedly for being too gloomy about Britain’s prospects after leaving the EU – will be left on the sidelines and is not due to take part.

The PM and cabinet members including Boris Johnson and David Davis will give a series of six separate speeches over the next three weeks, it was announced yesterday.

Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson will kick-off the speeches with a call for unity on Wednesday – Valentine’s Day. On Saturday Mrs May will use a visit to Munich to detail the security partnership the UK wants to maintain with the EU. Brexit Secretary Mr Davis will then make a speech on business, Cabinet Secretary David lidington will address the way in which Brexit will affect Scotland, Wales and Northern ireland.

liam Fox, the international Trade Sec- retary, will set out how Britain will forge new trade deals across the world.

Following a special ‘away day’ summit of the Cabinet’s Brexit war committee at Chequers later this month, Mrs May will then round off the process in an address setting out how she sees the overall relationship between Britain and Brussels after withdrawal.

international Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt yesterday said business leaders and the public ‘will get some answers’ about where the country is heading.

She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘i think what the public wants is they want the vision and they want some meat on the bones and that’s what they’re going to get.

‘That will involve at the end of the process the Prime Minister setting out what that new partnership will look like, but it will also give some detail on our trading ambitions and relationship, on what it means for devolution and many other aspects.’

Justice Secretary David Gauke yesterday attempted to play down Mr hammond’s absence from the list of Cabinet Brexit speakers, insisting is was not part of a plot.

‘he is not part of the set of speeches that have been outlined, but that doesn’t mean that the Chancellor is not expressing his views both internally in the Cabinet conversations, but also externally,’ he told iTV’s Peston on Sunday. ‘So, i don’t think that there is... any kind of plot to gag a particular faction of ministers. i don’t think that’s a fair characterisation at all.’

The series of speeches comes after the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier complained last week that there were still ‘problems’ in Brussels ‘understanding the position of the British Government’. in Germany, Mrs May will reaffirm her desire for Britain to remain part of the European arrest warrant and Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency.

Anna Soubry yesterday claimed Brexit may not happen as she threatened to work with opposition MPs to disrupt the UK’s departure from the EU. The Tory Remainer said Parliament could vote to cancel the process if the PM does not soften the Government’s negotiating stance.

Asked by the BBC’s Andrew Marr if there were enough Tory and labour MPs that could ‘defeat the kind of Brexit the Prime Minister wants’, Miss Soubry replied: ‘if she’s not careful, yes.’

‘Not part of a plot to gag anyone’