Foreign Secretary blasted for ‘dereliction of duty’ after admitting department made no plans for Brexit

PHILIP Hammond was blasted today after revealing the Foreign Office made no plans for Brexit – and saying he didn’t “see the need” for any.

The Foreign Secretary and other ministers were accused of a “dereliction of duty” for not drawing up any contingency plans.

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Mr Hammond told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that only the Treasury made preparations for an Out vote in last month’s referendum to help calm markets.

Asked if that was an oversight Mr Hammond said no, adding: “I’m not sure that I see the need.

“The decision that has been made will be implemented over a timescale that runs into years.”

He also claimed that if Whitehall ministries had drawn up contingency plans that then leaked, they would have been seen as “an unwarranted intervention” in the campaign.

But Lib Dem leader Tim Farron raged on Twitter: “This is frankly a dereliction of duty by the Government.”

And Committee Chairman Crispin Blunt told the Foreign Secretary: “The Government, for political reasons, appears to have taken a decision to place the country in a place where there was no contingency plan for the Leave vote, outside of the financial markets.

“This is a serious oversight in terms of the critical path in understanding what the issues are that the country’s facing.”

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Mr Hammond also told the MPs that Britain was not yet ready to start talks with the EU on Brexit.

And he defended the Government’s refusal to guarantee long-term rights for EU citizens currently in the UK to remain, telling the committee a “unilateral” decision would undermine Britain’s position in negotiations.

But Mr Blunt told the Foreign Secretary his position was “wholly misconceived” and called on ministers to give immediate assurances to EU nationals resident in the UK.

And Tory committee member John Baron said Mr Hammond seemed to be driven by a “Project Fear in denial” attitude which prevented any optimistic view of Britain’s future.