A senior Tory MP has blasted the Treasury’s failure to plan around a Leave vote, as revealed by top civil servant earlier today
A senior Tory MP and Brexiteer has blasted the Treasury's failure to plan for a Leave vote, as revealed by a top civil servant earlier today.
Speaking to the public accounts committee, the Treasury's most senior civil servant admitted that his department made no plans for a Brexit vote.
Tom Scholar, the permanent secretary to the Treasury, told MPs that apart from liaising with the Bank of England, and producing two controversial reports which warned of the consequences of Brexit, no work had been done.
Scholar said that Treasury officials had only committed to reports into the short term consequences of Brexit, which warned of a potential recession, and a loss of £4,300 per household by 2030, and liaised with the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority on financial stability after the vote.
“The government did not produce an alternative desired end point for the relationship between the UK and the EU,” Scholar told MPs.
“That is something that the government will need to do, and there is a great deal of working going on already to prepare for that.”
But Steve Baker, who sits on the Treasury Select Committee and supported the Leave campaign, slammed the government's failure to plan.
“I have always thought it was disappointing that the government wasn't planning for a leave vote. The government would have provided a more robust and positive reaction to a leave vote if they had been prepared for it,” Baker said.
“I'm confident that the new government, under a new Prime Minister, with the support of excellent civil servants and the many years of experience among MPs, will quickly deliver all that is needed.”
Just days after the UK voted to leave the EU, David Cameron established a new civil service Brexit Unit to begin planning ahead of the selection of a new Prime Minister.