Boris Johnson’s promise to take Britain out of the EU with or without a deal on the scheduled Brexit date of October 31 has been undermined by a confidential cabinet note warning that the country is still far from prepared for the disruption of a disorderly exit.
The note, seen by the Financial Times, says the government needs six to eight months of engagement with the pharmaceutical industry “to ensure adequate arrangements are in place to build stockpiles of medicines by October 31”.
It also says that it would take “at least 4-5 months” to improve trader readiness for the new border checks that might be required, including the provision of financial incentives to encourage exporters and importers to register for new schemes.
Mr Johnson, the front runner to become the next Conservative party leader and prime minister, launches his campaign on Wednesday. He will insist that the UK cannot “go on kicking the can down the road with yet more delay” over Brexit.
But the cabinet note confirms that any new prime minister would find it very hard to conclude preparations, especially on medicines and border controls by October 31.The Foreign Office, according to the note, would need “at least a two-month period” to communicate with more than 1m UK citizens living in other EU countries and to allow them to prepare for the uncertainty around their future status.
The note, prepared for cabinet on May 21, said that while government departments had delivered around 85 per cent of their “core no-deal plans”, many of those provided only “a minimum viable level of capability”. Of the remaining plans that had not been delivered, the note says the shortcomings in government readiness were “material”.
The presentation to cabinet was drawn up with input from Steve Barclay, the Eurosceptic Brexit secretary, who has been frustrated by the government’s failure to accelerate its preparations for a no-deal exit. The note was never circulated for the cabinet discussion on May 21 because Theresa May was concentrating at the time on her ultimately failed bid to push through the legislation on her deal with the EU.
After that attempt collapsed, the prime minister announced her plans to resign. A spokesman from Mr Barclay’s department said on Wednesday
that the government would “absolutely continue to make all necessary preparations” after spending almost three years preparing to minimise the disruption of nodeal. He added that the government had published 750 pieces of no-deal communication since October and held 700 “cross-government stake hold engagements” this year.
