£1.5bn plans for No Deal are axed after Brexit delay

NO DEAL Brexit plans were called off last night as the Government stood down 6,000 civil servants who were due to implement them.

The cost of preparing to leave the EU without an agreement had been estimated at £1.5 billion.

But after Theresa May struck a deal to delay Brexit, civil servants seconded from elsewhere have been able to return to their normal roles.

Labour MP Hilary Benn, chairman of the Brexit select committee, said it was a ‘costly price’ to pay for the Prime Minister’s negotiating stance of keeping No Deal on the table.

He added: ‘It was important to plan for all contingencies, but this is the huge cost of the Prime Minister repeatedly saying, “My deal or No Deal,” when she knew leaving without a deal was not in the national interest.’

The Cabinet Office made the decision to reverse the plans at a meeting on Thursday morning. A letter leaked to Sky News said: ‘ In common with the rest of Government, we have stood down our No Deal operational planning with immediate effect.

‘This morning, at a meeting chaired by the Cabinet secretary, we agreed that the objective is to ensure we wind down our No Deal planning in a careful, considered and orderly way.’

Crispin Blunt, a Eurosceptic Tory MP, said the end of No Deal planning was a ‘complete betrayal’ of the referendum result and described the move as a ‘dereliction of duty’.

And Conservative MP Steve Baker, another hardline Brexiteer, branded the decision to stop the No Deal operations as ‘sheer spite’.

The contingency operations have impacted nearly all departments in the civil service and elsewhere in the public sector – including police, hospitals, schools and on the roads, with planning for heavy lorry congestion.

Downing Street said it continued to make ‘all necessary’ Brexit preparations.

Mrs May edged closer to a compromise with Labour on a customs union last night as she resumed talks with Jeremy Corbyn. The two met in Parliament hours after Mrs May told MPs there was ‘more agreement in relation to a customs union than is often given credit’.

The Labour leader also suggested the talks – which have now lasted nine days – were making progress.

He said: ‘I welcome the indications from the Government that they may be willing to move in the key areas.’ Addressing MPs after agreeing the Halloween Brexit extension, Mrs May said it was ‘in the national interest’ to reach a consensus.

She added that she hoped to agree a ‘single unified approach’ with Labour. If this fails, she will ask Mr Corbyn to agree a process that would see both sides accept the outcome of a series of votes on Brexit options, including a customs union.

The PM also outlined a third option involving bringing forward the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which would ratify her Brexit deal, and allowing MPs to vote on amendments to it as it progresses.

Tory MP Conor Burns, an ally of Boris Johnson, said the talks with Labour amounted to ‘two Remainers debating how to compromise on something that really isn’t even Brexit’.

But Scottish Secretary David Mundell said the Government was ‘certainly willing’ to discuss a customs union compromise with Labour. And ex-minister Andrew Murrison suggested a customs union would be a price worth paying for getting a deal through.

‘Dereliction of duty’