Department for Brexit to be axed after January 31
THE Department for Exiting the EU will be axed next month as ministers try to show they are ‘moving on’ from Brexit.
Downing Street said the department, set up by Theresa May in 2016, would be wound up when Britain leaves the EU on January 31.
The move came before a major Commons vote today on the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal.
Ahead of the vote, Boris Johnson said the Government would ‘deliver on the promise we made to the people and get the Brexit vote wrapped up for Christmas’.
Mr Johnson is understood to be planning to create a beefed-up trade and industry department, led by Michael
Gove, to conduct negotiations with Brussels on the UK’s future relationship with the EU. Ministers will also be discouraged from using the term Brexit in order to underline to the public that the process has been ‘done’. The Downing Street press office’s Brexit unit is set to be renamed the Europe and Economy team.
One Government source said: ‘Once we’re out on January 31 that’s it. The deal is done and after that it’s all about the future relationship. We are moving on.’
The Queen’s Speech yesterday said leaving the EU would a Government ‘priority’.
MPs will hold a special sitting in the Commons today to vote through the first stage of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which enshrines Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal in law. Tory MPs were told they face a frantic first week back in January to push the legislation through its remaining stages. The legislation has stripped out a string of concessions previously made to Labour
MPs, covering issues such as workers’ rights and the power to extend the transition period beyond the end of next year.
The Queen’s Speech also contained a raft of legislation laying the groundwork for the UK’s post- Brexit future, including laws to define a points-based immigration system – which the Conservatives said will reduce the number of low- skilled migrants coming to the UK. Legislation will also set out new regimes for the farming and fishing industries, which are governed almost entirely by EU law.
Efforts will be made to redeploy the Brexit department’s 750 staff to other areas, such as the Cabinet Office and the new trade department.
The department was originally run by David Davis, who quit over Mrs May’s Brexit deal. He was succeeded by Dominic Raab – who quit for the same reason. Current Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay will close today’s Commons debate on Mr Johnson’s deal.
Critics say the department has struggled to find a role, as negotiations with Brussels were taken over by Mrs May – then by Mr Johnson. Responsibility for preparing for a possible No Deal was handed to the Cabinet Office under the command of Mr Gove.