Bid to force release of Brexit dossier with vote
Report claims UK will be worse off regardless of deal
LABOUR WILL today seek to force the Government to release its latest assessment of the impact of Brexit on the economy through a binding Commons vote.
In an Opposition Day Debate, the party will use the same archaic parliamentary procedure it adopted last year to force Ministers to release Brexit impact papers to a Commons select committee.
The move follows the leak of a study, drawn up for the Department for Exiting the EU, which concluded the UK economy would lose out whatever Brexit deal the Government struck with the EU.
Theresa May sought to play down the document, telling the weekly meeting of the Cabinet that it represented “initial work” by officials which had not been signed off by Ministers.
However, Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer said MPs were entitled to the information if they were to make informed decisions on Britain’s future relationship with the EU.
“People voted to leave the European Union in part to give Parliament control about its own future. That means giving MPs the information they need to scrutinise the Government’s approach to Brexit,” he said.
“Ministers cannot keep sidelining Parliament to hide the deep divisions within their own party. They should accept this motion and allow the country to have an informed debate about its relationship with Europe after Brexit.”
Unlike a normal Opposition Day Motion, the vote on the “humble address” will be binding on the Government if it is passed in today’s debate.
In the Commons yesterday, a number of pro-Remain Tories joined opposition MPs in calling for the analysis to be released, suggesting the vote could be close. According to the BuzzFeed report, the analysis concluded economic growth would be lower under a range of potential scenarios. Even if the UK was able to negotiate a comprehensive free trade agreement, it estimated growth would be down five per cent over the next 15 years.
THERESA MAY has sought to play down the leak of the Government’s latest Brexit analysis after a study concluded Britain would be worse off, whatever deal is struck with Brussels.
The Prime Minister told the weekly meeting of the Cabinet that the paper represented “initial work” by officials which had not been signed off by Ministers.
She said the document had not looked at the impact on the economy if the Government achieves the sort of “bespoke” trading agreement with the EU it is seeking. The leak of the economic impact analysis, which was drawn up for the Department for Exiting the EU, triggered renewed demands from opposition parties to release the full details.
The document, seen by the BuzzFeed News website, concluded economic growth would be lower under a range of potential scenarios.
Even if the UK was able to negotiate a comprehensive free trade agreement, it estimates growth would be down five per cent over the next 15 years. That would rise to eight per cent if Britain left without a deal and was forced to fall back on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
Alternatively, if the UK were to retain access to the single market through membership of the European Economic Area, the loss would be just two per cent.
However, Mrs May stressed that the document had only considered a range of “off-the-shelf ” arrangements rather than the specific deal the Government is seeking to negotiate.
A No. 10 spokesman said: “At the beginning of Cabinet, the Prime Minister noted media coverage of a report purporting to show the impact of Britain leaving EU. The PM said this was initial work, not approved by Ministers which only considers off-the-shelf scenarios. No analysis was made of the bespoke agreement we seek as a matter of Government policy.”
After her Cabinet meeting yesterday, Mrs May met Estonian prime minister Juri Ratas. A spokesman said she congratulated him on the centenary of Estonia’s independence and its recent EU presidency, and they spoke about shared interests, including defence, the digital economy and Brexit.
But as the Prime Minister headed off for a three-day trade mission to China, opposition parties said the public were entitled to know the true cost of leaving the EU.
Labour Shadow Brexit Minister Matthew Pennycook said: “Labour has made clear since the referendum that Tory Ministers cannot withhold vital information from Parliament and the public about the impact of different Brexit scenarios on jobs and the economy.
“Ministers should publish this information immediately and allow for a full debate in Parliament about its implications.”
Liberal Democrat spokesman Tom Brake said: “Theresa May has been trying to hide the truth from the public for months, but now her mask is slipping.
“The cold hard reality is that these reports reveal nothing we didn’t already know. Of course staying in the EU remains our best option, of course Brexit is going to damage the UK.”
The leak did nothing to calm the febrile mood within the Conservative Party, amid concerns over Mrs May’s leadership and the direction of the Brexit negotiations with Brussels. Former Cabinet Minister Iain Duncan Smith said the leak was “highly suspicious” and previous forecasts about the impact of Brexit had proved to be “completely wrong”.
“I think the timing in this is highly suspicious in the sense that suddenly in the midst of all this conversation about the European Union we have a leaked document.
“But, I would observe that almost every single forecast coming from Government, and most of the international organisations, has been completely wrong.”
He told the BBC: “I think we should take this with a pinch of salt.”
I think we should take this with a pinch of salt. Former Cabinet Minister Iain Duncan Smith.
THE LATEST Brexit row about the potential economic impact of Britain’s departure from the European Union epitomises everything that is wrong with the Government’s handling of this issue.
By repeatedly refusing to publish this analysis, the Government risks alienating Remain supporters who favour a soft Brexit – and those hardline Eurosceptics who favour a clean and decisive break from the EU.
Though Britain’s economy has proved surprisingly resilient following the EU referendum in June 2016, the future cannot be forecast with any certainty and Theresa May’s desire to put the country’s best interests first is being compromised by those feuding Ministers and MPs whose mutual mistrust is putting the Government’s very future in jeopardy.
No wonder Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary, declared “not good enough” and “here we go again” in the House of Commons when Ministers declined to publish the latest analysis that is shaping 10 Downing Street’s approach.
Yes, the Government’s power struggle is a gift to the Opposition, but Labour’s own approach also changes by the day – it’s very unlikely that Jeremy Corbyn’s party would fare any better if it was tasked with implementing Brexit. It’s all the more reason to regret Mrs May’s failure to reach out to all parties when she became Prime Minister. If she’d done so, this debate might – just – be less toxic.