Leaked Brexit memo – what you need to know
by A leaked memo from earlier this month, has revealed the UK government still have no plan for Brexit – five months on from the referendum.
Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU but now faces the prospect of being dragged out by a UK government beset by chaos and confusion. That’s not what Scotland voted for.
Here’s what you need to know about the leaked memo.
The UK government has no plan – almost five months after the EU referendum.
The leaked memo states that the UK government “falls considerably short” of having a plan. Here’s what the leaked report says:
“Every department has developed a ‘bottom-up’ plan of what the impact of Brexit could be – and its plan to cope with the ‘worst case’…Although necessary, this falls considerably short of having a ‘government plan for Brexit’”.
It’ll take another six months for the UK government to even agree a strategy.
The memo also indicates that the UK government could take another six months to agree on priorities and negotiating strategy for exiting the EU. The report states that “no common strategy has emerged”.
The hard Brexiteers are filling the void and hijacking the process.
The report shines a light on the deepening splits growing within the government between hard Brexiteers – Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit Secretary David Davis, Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary – and the Chancellor, Phillip Hammond.
The UK government are struggling to grasp the effect Brexit will have on industry.
The memo states:
“Departments are struggling to come up to speed on the potential Brexit effects on industry. This is due to starting from a relatively low base of insight and also due to fragmentation.”
The UK government would need to hire 30,000 civil servants to leave the EU.
The leaked memo states that the UK government is working on over 500 Brexit-related projects but would need to hire around 30,000 civil servants to match the task. That’s almost double the number of staff working for the entire devolved civil service in Scotland, with the most recent figures showing 16,800 civil servants directly employed by the Scottish Government.