Dominic Raab slams Philip Hammond claims that a No Deal Brexit will hit our economy
The Brexit Secretary has questioned the point of Treasury forecasts and admits that he treats them with 'a measure of caution'.
BREXIT Secretary Dominic Raab escalated the furious Cabinet row over no deal Brexit planning yesterday by dismissing Philip Hammond’s warning of a £80 billion hit to the economy.
He questioned the point of the Treasury’s forecasts and said he always treats its projections with “a measure of caution”.
It was a withering slapdown of the Chancellor’s decision to publish controversial warnings of “large fiscal consequences” of leaving without a trade deal with the EU” on the same day as Mr Raab presented the virtues of a No Deal Brexit last week.
The hard-nosed Brexit chief also pointed out that GDP estimates for 2019 “have been revised up”.
It came as Theresa May summoned her warring Cabinet ministers to a crisis summit on no deal Brexit preparations next month - hastily arranged after Mr Hammond’s bid to undermine the plans.
She will bang heads together and warn that splits risk undermining her negotiating hand with Brussels.
The PM will use the crisis meeting on September 13 to get her Cabinet to agree to spending more cash on areas not yet covered under current no deal contingency plans.
There are concerns that only £750 million of the £3 billion set aside for no deal preparations have been spent so far.
Whitehall insiders said certain pro-Remain ministers - such as Business Secretary Greg Clark - are “dragging their feet” over their own departments’ planning - because they oppose a no deal.
One official told the Sunday Times: “The meeting is needed to work out once and for all if we can survive a no deal scenario.
Some departments are better prepared than others; we urgently have to get the money where it is needed.
The meeting will decide what gets spent where.”
Senior Brexiteers are urging the PM to use the crisis summit on September 13 to humiliate Mr Hammond in front of his colleagues.
Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, chair of the influential European Research Group, said the Chancellor needed to be reminded of his duty to back government policy on no deal Brexit planning.
He told the Sun: “Part of the Chequers announcement was that collective responsibility was being restored.
“The Chancellor has ignored that so it is sensible to bring the Cabinet together to remind them of how the constitution is supposed to work.”
Yesterday Mr Raab got his revenge on Mr Hammond’s bid to undermine no deal Brexit planning last week when he published a letter warning of major economic damage to the economy if we leave without a deal next March.
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In an interview with the Sunday Times the Brexit Secretary said: “I’m always chary of any forecast because most of them have been proved to be wrong.”
“We need to treat some of the forecasts with a measure of caution.”
Mr Raab also brushed aside the challenge of Brexit negotiations ahead of him - boasting of how he went head to head with the Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic when he was an international lawyer in the Hague.
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