‘We’ve been kept in the dark over damaging impact of Brexit’
WEST LONDON GROUP SAYS DISCUSSIONS SHOULD NOT BE KEPT SECRET
IT HAS been claimed a key West London local authority, covering Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s parliamentary constituency, has been examining the potentially damaging impacts of Brexit on west London, but has kept its discussions secret.
According to research about Hillingdon Council by a local West London pressure group, Harrow and Hillingdon European Movement, crucial issues were discussed at a series of closed sessions within a number of council committee meetings over the past four years.
The group says the secret discussions, and the potential Brexitrelated problems raised in them, are highly controversial, especially because they are happening in and near the Prime Minister’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.
It wants to see all the discussions and information about the impact of Brexit made public immediately.
They have all so far taken place in the ‘part two’ sections of meetings which are held in private rather than the ‘part one’ sections which are always in public.
Councils can hold discussions in part two but only for a number of key reasons, usually if they are talking about financially sensitive information.
David Keys, secretary of Harrow and Hillingdon European Movement, said: “Revealing all the relevant information to the public is now very urgent, because although we left the EU back in January, Brexit will not, in practical terms, be implemented until the beginning of 2021.
“That’s in less than three months time – and local residents throughout the borough have a right to be told how their council and their borough will be impacted.
“The Brexit-related problems, raised in closed sessions of the council’s audit committee, should be made public.
“We believe that the secret information raised at some of those audit committee sessions conceivably revealed serious future potential impacts on social services, housing, education and other services in Hillingdon.”
The publicly available parts of Hillingdon Council’s audit committee minutes state that the council believes “that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing it”.
However, it is known that earlier this year, Hillingdon Council’s audit committee considered a briefing from the council’s auditors which referred to “continued uncertainties – including those surrounding Brexit”.
The briefing warned the council that the economy may not be able to “provide much support” to help local councils meet the challenges facing them.
The auditors’ briefing paper also told Hillingdon Council that the government “is likely to remain focused on international trade and relations over the next few years”.
It will therefore become “increasingly important for local government to continue to play a leading role in society, delivering vital services for local residents”.
The briefing then warned the council that “there is little in [our] forecasts to suggest that the economy will provide much support in meeting these challenges”.
Harrow and Hillingdon European Movement has now officially written to the leader of Hillingdon Council, Cllr Ray Puddifoot, urging the council to publish a full account of its Brexit-related Corporate Risk Register and other investigations and findings.
It has told the leader it is “extremely concerned at how the implementation of Brexit on January 1 next year will affect local people”.
The letter states: “We know that the council’s officials have investigated the potential impacts of a possible ‘no deal’ or other form of hard Brexit on council direct and/or indirect workforces and services – and the extremely important results of those investigations were reported to a series of council committee meetings over the past four years.
“We also, of course, realise that councillors (attending those meetings) have raised important issues relating to Brexit’s future potential impacts on the council, its workforce (and therefore its services) and on the borough as a whole.
“What’s more, we are of course aware that your external auditors have brought Brexit-related matters to the attention of your audit committee.
“The matters are of profound public interest and concern – and we are therefore very disturbed that all the information revealed or discussed at all the relevant sessions of those meetings have been kept secret.
“The public were excluded from every single one of those particularly crucial audit committee sessions.”
The letter goes on to say that 133,000 residents voted in the 2016 referendum and that “irrespective of whether they voted leave or remain”, they and others have “a fundamental right” to know how Brexit is likely “to affect their council, their community and their lives”.
The key closed sessions took place as part of some of the council’s 14 audit committee meetings which occurred between 2016 and 2020.
Harrow and Hillingdon European Movement is carrying out its own assessment of the likely 2021 and 2022 impacts on Hillingdon of the UK’s end-2020 exit from the Single Market and the Customs Union.
It is very concerned that a potential ‘no deal’ or other form of hard exit from the European Single Market and the Customs Union in just over three months time will seriously damage the livelihoods of many people in Hillingdon and Harrow and across the country.
It is also asking Hillingdon Council to demand the Prime Minister conduct the current UK/EU negotiations in such a way that does “not damage the lives, livelihoods and futures of the people of the borough”.
Hillingdon Council has previously, in response to an unrelated Freedom of Information request, stated that “the risk of Brexit has been discussed generally” during its “quarterly risk management meetings” and has said that it is “aware of the impact Brexit could potentially have” on its directly and indirectly employed workforce.