Government needs to act in a fast, flexible and unified way

Theresa May’s administration is putting a successful Brexit at risk by failing to show “active and energetic” leadership, the head of the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned. In an unprecedented intervention, Sir Amyas Morse said Whitehall departments were being left to “struggle on their own” with Brexit because of a failure of leadership and direction. He said Brexit poses the “biggest challenge” to the nation since the Second World War, but government could “come apart like a chocolate orange” unless departments were given more support. They should not be left to decide which of their many projects to prioritise. Sir Amyas also revealed that David Davis’s Brexit department failed to show him a plan for leaving the European Union, despite his requests for one, and could only offer a “vague” explanation as to why it was unable to do so. “Government will need to be fast and flexible and act in a unified way,” Sir Amyas said. He added that he had serious doubts about the likelihood of a unified approach, saying: “We have an issue here because of departmental government and what we don’t want to find is that at the first tap it comes apart like a chocolate orange.” Earlier on Wednesday, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, hit back at Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s declaration that the EU can “go whistle” if it thinks the UK will pay a large exit bill. The criticism came as the Great Repeal Bill was to come before the Commons yesterday, in what Davis called “a major milestone”.