Brexit talks could cost £65m a year and need 500 more pen pushers

● Lack of a plan for leaving the EU seen as ‘unsettling and perplexing’

Planning for Brexit could cost the government £65 million a year and involve hiring at least 500 civil servants – but time is being “wasted” on “political squabbles and turf wars”, a new report has warned.

The paper criticised Prime Minister Theresa May’s “silence” on her negotiating position for leaving the European Union, which it said is “unsettling” for business and “perplexing” for countries the UK faces negotiating with.

In the absence of a clearly articulated government strategy, off-the-cuff remarks are filling the void, the report by the Institute for Government think-tank warned.

It said the decision to split responsibility for Brexit between three departments – the Foreign Office, the Department for Exiting the EU, and the Department for International Trade – risks “fragmentation and incoherence”, according to the report.

Dividing power between the so-called three Brexiteers, Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox, risks squabbles and infighting between the triumvirate, the institute warned.

The report, Planning For Brexit: Silence Is Not A Strategy, stated: “This triple departmental structure risks creating fragmentation and incoherence, and a lack of clarity about the roles and responsibilities of the new departments has caused distractions and delayed work on Brexit.

“The Prime Minister now needs to move swiftly to stamp out potential turf wars between her Brexit ministers and make clear who does what.” It added: “The Prime Minister’s silence about how she intends to reach an initial negotiating position is proving problematic.”

Mrs May has refused to say when she will trigger Article 50 and start the formal twoyear negotiations on leaving the EU, although Mr Johnson has said it is likely to be early next year. The report urged Mrs May to “clarify the process and timescales through which she intends her government to agree the UK’S initial negotiating position”.

It said: “In the absence of a clear plan, ‘Kremlinology’ and off-the-cuff remarks are filling the void. The current position of the outside world trying to divine the government’s position from the personal musings of individual ministers is creating unhelpful uncertainty.”