Theresa May to hold Cabinet crisis summit to prepare for a ‘no deal’ Brexit as her ministers go to war over doom-laden forecasts
PM has told her top team to clear their schedule for September 13 to work on contingency plans for exiting EU without an agreement
THERESA May is set to hold a crisis summit with her Cabinet to discuss preparations for a “no deal” Brexit as her ministers go to war over doom-laden forecasts.
The Prime Minister has told her top team to clear their schedule for September 13 to work on contingency plans for exiting the EU without an agreement next year.
It comes after Philip Hammond reignited the row over the issue by warning of “large fiscal consequences” in such a scenario.
It led to calls by Brexiteers for Mrs May to sack her Chancellor, saying he was undermining the Government’s whole negotiating strategy with Brussels.
And the Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab hit back today, saying most forecasts have “been proved to be wrong”.
So in an attempt to stop the row from damaging Britain’s prospects of exiting the bloc with the best possible arrangement, a crunch meeting has been arranged.
Officials told the newspaper the she was calling a “no-deal cabinet” as some “remain” ministers like the Business Secretary Greg Clark had been “dragging their feet”.
One said: “The meeting is needed to work out once and for all if we can survive a no-deal scenario.
He did not mention the Chancellor by name but it needed little interpretation to see the Eurosceptic minister was singling out the Treasury boss.
Mr Van Rompuy said: "One can imagine that a no deal will have a big impact and cause concern in some of the regions.
"Speaking of Scotland, it could have consequences for them and others.”
He added: "We could end up with a situation in which the EU27 becomes more united and a United Kingdom less united.
"This talk about a 'no deal' is the kind of nationalist rhetoric that belongs to another era."
The row began when Mr Hammond's comments in a letter to a commons committee emerged hours after Mr Raab had attempted to play down the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit while outlining the impact of such a scenario via a series of technical papers.
The Chancellor said GDP could fall and borrowing could be about £80billion a year higher by 2033/34 without a deal.
And he also warned of damaging effects on industries from car-building to retail, leading to senior Tories branding him the “Gerald Ratner of British politics”.