Whitehall’s huge 9,000 staff hiring spree to get Britain ready for no-deal Brexit
Warnings have been made that the Government don't have enough staff to get ready for no-deal, but Dominic Raab has admitted he will hire hundreds more staff to make sure Britain is as ready as possible in case no deal is reached with the EU
WHITEHALL is to hire 9,000 more staff to get ready for a no-deal Brexit, amid claims there are a shortage of officials.
Senior Government figures are said to have sounded the alarm bells about the number of people there are to help prepare.
“This isn’t about the money it’s about people. You can’t take the sort of numbers you need out of the government’s current operations without them falling over,” a senior figure told The Times.
But last week Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said he was going on a huge hiring spree to make sure we're as ready as possible no matter what happens with Brexit talks.
The Department is already advertising for a string of policy advisers and statisticians, and a governance manager.
And the Department for Trade is looking for several new positions too - including media staff, a World Trade Organisation policy officer and US trade advisers.
The 9,000 are on top of around 7,000 people that are already working on the plans for no deal.
Senior EU diplomats have also sneered that Brits would face "no flights to and from the UK, no ships, no economic activity and no financial transactions" if we failed to agree a deal before we leave the bloc next March.
But Theresa May will hold a cabinet meeting to discuss no-deal preparations early next month.
The Prime Minister has told her top team to clear their schedule for September 13 to work on contingency plans for exiting the EU without an agreement next year.
It came after her ministers went to war over claims of what would happen to Britain's economy if that happened.
Gloomy Philip Hammond repeated calls that it would damage our economy, But Brexit boss Mr Raab has insisted most forecasts about leaving the EU in the past have proved to be wrong.
MOST READ IN POLITICS
The said Number 10 has confirmed Mrs May has called for a gathering to do a “stock take” of preparations, with concerns just £750million has been spent on no-deal planning, with another £3billion not yet allocated..
Officials told the newspaper the she was calling a “no-deal cabinet” as some “remain” ministers like the Business Secretary Greg Clark had been “dragging their feet”.
One said: “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.”