'No deal' planning is well underway, says minister

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41544588

'No deal' planning is well underway, says minister

Contingency plans in case the UK has to leave the EU with no deal in place are "well under way", a minister has said. Dominic Raab said while the UK had to "strive for the very best outcome" from Brexit negotiations, it had to "prepare for all eventualities".

The Sunday Telegraph claimed there were plans to "unlock" billions of pounds in the new year to prepare for a "no deal" Brexit, if talks make no progress. Six months of Brexit negotiations have not led to a significant breakthrough.

Last month Prime Minister Theresa May used a speech in Florence to set out proposals for a two-year transition period after the UK leaves the EU in March 2019, in a bid to ease the deadlock. Talks had stalled over key issues including EU citizens' rights, a financial settlement and on the Northern Ireland border.

UK Brexit Secretary David Davis has since said "decisive steps forward" have been made - although EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said there are still "big gaps" between the two sides on some issues. The Sunday Telegraph reported that, if no further progress is made, Mrs May has decided to commit billions in the new year to spend on things like new technology to speed up customs checks, in case there is no trade deal and the UK has to revert to World Trade Organisation tariffs with the EU.

If the EU says at the October Council they don't intend to talk about a future Agreement we must get on with preparing for exit with No Deal

— John Redwood (@johnredwood) October 7, 2017

Meanwhile two Conservative MEPs who voted to block moves towards trade talks between the UK and European Union have had the party whip removed.

South West MEP Julie Girling and South East MEP Richard Ashworth were suspended from the Conservative Party after supporting a resolution in Strasbourg declaring that "sufficient progress" had not been made in talks to move on to discussions about the future relationship.

We really are wasting our time with this pack of jokers.

The EU refuses to discuss the future relationship until the issues of financial settlement, the Anglo-Irish border and the transitional deal are decided. But how can you decide those until you know what the future relationship is? For example, a future relationship will require some sort of Customs checks on the border with the Irish Republic - so in order to settle that customs question we therefore need to be discussing the future relationship, which the EU is unwilling to do. So we reach an impasse.

The PM today also saying in the HoC to Jacob Rees-Mogg that the ECJ will apply during a transition to me is unacceptable. If the transition was a year long, perhaps, but not two years. I supported her staying in post but that has changed my mind today. If I were an MP then my letter to the 1922 committee would be in the post this week. If Whitehall and the Treasury are dragging their feet over this then get somebody in who will make things happen.

HM Government should actively be setting up Customs infrastructure and regulatory agencies right at this minute and simply say to the EU that we're off in March 2019 so you can either discuss our future relationship now or we'll revert to the WTO tariffs - and you'll get no pensions contributions/a penny once we've left. Put it on THEIR heads. Unless we're ready for March 2019 and we're *seen* to be ready, then it is all hollow words. Get a move on - I want to see huge customs construction taking place at the Port of Dover and on the motorways of Ulster.

Thoughts?