Warnings on Brexit cannot be ignored

THE Prime Minister is about to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, so formally beginning our exit from the EU. This is when our negotiating and planning skills are really tested. But Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, drawn from all sides of the House and with a Tory in the chair, warns that Brexit Ministers and departments are far from ready. The committee fears that Whitehall is making a grave mistake by failing to plan for a ‘hard Brexit’, crashing out of the EU without an agreed deal.

It condemns Brexit Secretary David Davis for brushing off calls to plan for such an exit, saying it would be ‘guesswork’. On the contrary, the committee says, it is all too easy to predict and could lead to ‘mutually assured damage’.

It urges the Government to make contingency plans for such an outcome, if it wishes to avoid accusations of ‘dereliction of duty’. The Premier, and Mr Davis, should take this very seriously. These are the same MPs who savaged David Cameron for ‘gross negligence’ for his comparable failure to make preparations for a Leave victory last June.

The referendum result has imposed a necessary but temporary unity on the Tory Party. All but a handful of mavericks accept that its result must be respected. But plenty of thoughtful MPs see no reason to stand and watch while grave mistakes are made. There has been a tendency on the part of Leave supporters to view any doubts or criticism as a denial of democracy. In some cases this was justified. Some Remainers behaved arrogantly and showed unwise contempt for a democratic vote.

But it is not excusable in this case. When the British people voted to leave the European Union, they assumed as they did so that this task would be accomplished competently and carefully. Mrs May and Mr Davis would be wise to heed the warnings of the Foreign Affairs Committee while there is still time.