No excuse for Brexit delays, Whitehall told

Brexit Secretary faces new blow to authority as Prime Minister looks at different role for Boris Johnson

MINISTERS have warned Whitehall that there can be no more excuses for delaying Brexit preparations, including readying the UK for the prospect of leaving the EU without a deal.

A team of 100 officials in David Davis’s Brexit department will this month urge mandarins to intensify preparations for leaving the EU as they return a series of delivery plans to Whitehall.

Mr Davis’s department will subsequently produce monthly “progress reports” to ensure each Government department is enacting the plans.

It comes as his allies raised concerns that he will be marginalised if Boris Johnson is handed a “supercharged” Brexit role in a forthcoming reshuffle.

Mr Davis’s department is moving to galvanise Brexit preparations after Eurosceptic Cabinet ministers, including Michael Gove and Mr Johnson, warned that Whitehall is failing to do enough to prepare for leaving the EU.

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, provoked a row earlier this year after insisting that taxpayers’ money will not be spent on preparing for Brexit with- out a deal until the “last moment”.

A Whitehall source said: “In the New Year the Government is moving from a planning phase to a delivery phase. We will be removing the excuses some departments have for not being ready.

“The intention is to ensure we are ready to deliver Brexit whatever is negotiated in Brussels, and while the chance of a ‘no deal’ scenario has fallen, we will still be prepared.”

DAVID DAVIS’S allies fear that he risks being “marginalised” if Boris Johnson is handed a new “super-charged” Brexit role in a Cabinet reshuffle.

The Prime Minister is said to be considering moving Mr Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, in a “renewal” reshuffle in which she could axe as many as five ministers.

Mr Johnson could be asked to replace Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, with the portfolio significantly bolstered to give him more direct “ownership” of Brexit.

However, allies of the Foreign Secretary said that he was likely to reject the move because he is “very happy” in the Foreign Office after several turbulent months.

“The difficulty they will have is that they know they can’t sack him,” a source said.

There are also concerns that Mr Davis, the Brexit Secretary, could be sidelined if Mr Johnson is given a significant Brexit role.

It comes after Olly Robbins, Mr Davis’s former chief of staff, left his department to lead a newly formed European Unit in the Cabinet Office.

He now reports directly to Theresa May rather than Mr Davis and is regarded by some in Brussels as the man effectively running Brexit negotiations.

An ally of Mr Davis said: “The role of the Brexit Secretary is being impinged on right, left and centre. I am seriously concerned that David Davis is being marginalised.

“If you look at the way Olly Robbins has usurped his function, and now you have this. I’m getting really quite concerned about David’s role… It does seem to me that there would be a loss of focus if Boris was to take on a bigger Brexit role.”

Mrs May is reportedly preparing to axe Sir Patrick Mcloughlin, the chairman of the Conservative Party, Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, Mr Clark, Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, and Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons.

There are also suggestions that Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary, could be axed. Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, is tipped to replace Damian Green in the Cabinet Office after he was forced out before Christmas.

Ministers also tipped for promotion include Brandon Lewis, the immigration minister, along with Dominic Raab, a justice minister, and Damian Hinds, the employment minister.

Mrs May will also be acutely aware of the need to appoint more women. At present only five members of the 21-strong Cabinet are women.

The timing of her prospective reshuffle has prompted concern among some members of the Cabinet. The Prime Minister is next week expected to launch a series of high-profile domestic policies in a bid to prove that she will not be defined by Brexit alone.

The minister said: “If you do a reshuffle you upset 100 people who don’t get promoted, and cheer up a dozen. I just can’t quite see why the PM would create these problems for herself.”