Civil Service to hire 8,000 staff to prepare for Brexit as Davis hails ‘acceleration’ in talks

THE Government has spent half a billion pounds on Brexit preparations and will create up to 8,000 civil service jobs by the end of next year to ensure the UK is ready.

David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, told the Cabinet that there had been a “significant acceleration” in preparations for Brexit, with 300 programmes already under way.

Ministers are preparing for a “range of outcomes”, including the possibility of leaving the European Union without a deal.

As Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, said he was prepared to “speed up” Brexit negotiations, Mr Davis said that more than 3,000 new posts had already been created in Whitehall departments as part of a “huge cross-government effort”. They include 300 lawyers, who are expected to help with the process of transferring EU laws onto Britain’s statute book. HMRC is also planning to recruit up to 5,000 extra staff as it prepares for new customs arrangements. Theresa May also told the Cabinet that a new EU exit and trade sub-committee was being created “to support the intensification of our domestic preparations”. It will be led by Damian Green, the First Secretary of State.

Mr Davis told the Lords EU select committee yesterday that the Brexit withdrawal agreement would “probably favour” Brussels. He said: “In the infamous – or famous – words of the European Union nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. The withdrawal agreement on balance will probably favour the union in terms of the things like money and so on. Whereas the future relationship will favour both sides and will be important to both of us.”

Mr Davis said he was seeking an “intensification” of talks but insisted Britain was on course to leave the EU in March 2019. He said: “We want to get on with the process – we are not holding up the process.

“We offered them the beginning of next week – they couldn’t do it. So it’s the latter part of next week when it will be when the negotiators engage. And I’ll be out there on Friday.”