Ministers to step up war of words with the EU next week by unveiling ‘No Deal’ plans and declaring: ‘We will be ready’
A first batch of technical notices that detail the UK's contingency plans for farming fishing, customs and even fag packets have been signed off
MINISTERS will dramatically step up the war of words with the EU next week by unveiling ‘No Deal’ plans and declaring: “We will be ready”.
A first batch of technical notices signed off by Theresa May will detail how Britain will have contingency plans in place for everything from farming to fishing, customs and even cigarette packets.
The EU controls the copyright for all 42 of the gory images used in fag packs to encourage people to quit the habit – meaning the UK may need its own pictures after March 2019.
Information on how the Government intends to stockpile medical supplies and vaccines in the NHS is expected to be among the first paper to be released on Thursday.
In all, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab intends to publish 80 technical notices between now and the end of September – instructing households and business how to prepare in the event of a collapse in talks with the EU.
Insiders admit the move could cause alarm given they will provide details of how health chiefs will have to stockpile certain medicines and blood products.
But a Whitehall source told The Sun: “These will very calmly show the EU that, in the event of No Deal, we’ve thought of it and we’re going to be ready.
“What it categorically isn’t, is some Project Fear exercise.
“It’s sensible planning so that, if we choose to walk away, we can do it from a position of readiness.”
The Sun in July revealed the Government had drawn up secret plans to stockpile processed food in the event of EU divorce talks collapsing.
At the PM’s Chequers showdown in July, Eurosceptic ministers demanded more be done to prepare Britain for leaving the EU without new arrangements in place.
Latvia’s Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics warned in an interview on Wednesday that the chances of the EU failing to reach a deal with the UK were now “50-50”.
Panicked industry figures claim the Government has done nowhere near enough to prepare for a “worse-case scenario”.
Nearly all 9,000 Border Force staff have been hit with an 8-week holiday ban next March in case we crash out of the EU without a deal.
Yesterday, livid hauliers branded Transport Secretary Chris Grayling clueless and said he appeared to have no credible No Deal plan.
Company bosses said they were astonished how in recent meetings the Tory big hitter appeared to be unaware they will not be able to carry goods on the Continent in the UK leaves without an agreement.
The Department for Transport insisted it was continuing to work closely with a “range of partners on contingency plans to ensure freight can continue to move as freely as possible between the UK and Europe”.
The Sun Says
IT has only taken two years but it looks like the Government is finally going to show Brussels that we are ready for a clean-break Brexit.
The publication of “technical notices” outlining how life will continue more or less as normal if the EU refuses to do a deal with Britain for petty political reasons is a crucial boost to our negotiating hand.
Compare this grown-up approach to what Brussels and some European leaders have been up to recently.
The EU has accused MI6 of bugging our Brexit talks. And our “ally” across the Irish Sea, the rent-a-quote Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, is threatening to ground our planes the day we leave.
The silly season is coming to an end but it seems only Britain is getting serious.
There is still much to do if, as we suspect, Brussels has no interest in negotiating in good faith. They are so terrified by the collapse of their project, thanks to unrest everywhere from Italy to Poland, that they’re willing to make themselves poorer as a result.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab must get his department moving quicker and force other parts of government to speed up their preparation.
But we are finally showing we can go it alone.
Not before time.
- GOT a news story? RING us on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL exclusive@the-sun.co.uk