£27m extra for Brexit preparations

0 Clockwise from top; Justice Minister Humza Yousaf and Lord Advocate James Wolffe appear before the Justice Committee yesterday; Bea Jones, mother of murder victim Moira Jones, who was killed by a Slovakian national; Mike Russell updates Holyrood on the latest plans for Brexit The Scottish Government has committed another £27 million to Brexit preparation, with the Constitutional Affairs Secretary Michael Russell warning that a no-deal outcome would have an “immediate and direct effect on citizens”.

Addressing MSPS on the Scottish Government’s preparations, Mr Russell said a “no deal” Brexit would be “chaos” no matter what contingencies were put in place.

The comments came as Boris Johnson launched another attack on Theresa May’s Chequers plan for a Brexit, saying it would be “substantially worse than the status quo” for British businesses.

The former foreign secretary made a surprise appearance at the Westminster launch of a report that argues the UK has “nothing to fear” from cutting all ties with the EU and falling back on World Trade Organisation rules.

Brexiteers will unveil another proposal today, arguing that the deadlock over the future of the Irish border can be broken through the use of ‘flying squads’ of customs officials to carry out checks on goods at their point of origin, without the need for a ‘hard’ frontier.

A comprehensive counterproposal to Chequers from Brexiteers has reportedly be postponed amid reports that its authors feared it would not stand up to scrutiny.

At Holyrood, Mr Russell told MSPS that additional funding will help prepare areas with “specific Eu-exit related demands”, but was criticised for failing to give enough detail.

He said UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s plea for medicine suppliers to stockpile six weeks of supplies had “exposed the scale and complexity” of the problems posed by ‘no deal’. And he warned Holyrood faces a heavy burden from the “unprecedented” volume of legislation to prepare for Brexit.