HAMM FISTED
Tories at war as Brexit Secretary laughs at Philip Hammond’s Project Fear warnings over No Deal
BREXIT Secretary Steve Barclay today deepened the Tory civil war over the EU by openly mocking Philip Hammond’s view that a No Deal will cost Britain £90billion.
The Boris-backing Cabinet Minister LAUGHED when challenged by MPs about the veracity of the figure today.
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Outgoing PM Theresa May also slapped down Philip Hammond over his £90billion No Deal warning, claiming he was “making his own arguments”.
The PM’s official spokesman suggested the Chancellor was using the figure to attack Boris Johnson’s Brexit hardline.
Mr Barclay said even the Chancellor would admit the prediction – based on a 15-year view of the fallout of a cliff-edge exit – was almost impossible to make with any certainty.
He added that Treasury’s own teams were working on ways to mitigate the impact of a No Deal “which they wouldn’t be working on them if they didn’t think it would have an effect”.
The Brexit Secretary told a cross-party select committee: “[£90 billion] is a prediction for 2035. I’m sure that the Chancellor himself would say it’s very difficult for any finance ministry with any certainty to predict 15 years after the implementation period – and it assumes no Government intervention.
“There are teams within the Treasury working on what Government intervention would be taken in the event of No Deal, self-evidently they would expect a landing zone to be different as they working on what measures they would take in the event of a No Deal.”
The blistering intervention came as the Chancellor took to Twitter to slam Brexiteer Jacob Rees Mogg’s claim that a cliff edge exit could BOOST the British economy by £80billion.
Mr Hammond said: “Happy to debate scale of negative impact of No Deal on the economy – but terrifying that someone this close to a potential future government can think we’d actually be better off by adding barriers to our largest market.”
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The Brexit Secretary earlier admitted the Government was preparing bumper compensation for farmers and car makers for a No Deal.
And he warned the risks of a No Deal were “underpriced” because the EU’s intransigence and MPs refusal to back Theresa May’s agreement.
He said: “A No Deal is underpriced still. It’s this Government’s intention to seek a deal but the question remains, is there a deal that is palatable to Parliament and will Parliament vote to revoke or will we leave with No Deal?”
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