Why has Raab's No Deal Brexit White Paper Been So Controversial?

Dominic Raab has only been Brexit Secretary for a matter of weeks and despite that he has still been ridiculed for giving up almost all negotiating power to Theresa May. Despite this, Raab has been intent on providing a face of calmness and composure with the Brexit negotiations and with just two months to go before a deal can be made with the EU27 the government has been ramping up No Deal preparations. This was seen as DExEU produced a White Paper outlining initial and key guidance for businesses in the event of a No Deal scenario but the lack of detail and key omission of financial services have left many curious at to where the government’s priorities are.

Despite the Government hiring an extra 25,000 staff since Article 50 was triggered and at least 16,000 of those directly working on Brexit it proves mindbogglingly numbing that it takes two years to produce around 15 documents of around three pages in length each.

This White Paper has also proved controversial due to the lack of mention for the transition period. What the Government has failed to publicly confirm is that if No Deal Brexit takes place the transition period will no longer take place and the UK will exit the EU on 29^th March 2019 very abruptly.

Another controversial talking point of this document is the trade implications that will be caused by a No Deal Brexit; the Government outlines the idea that there will be two types of Customs Declarations for trade with the EU, one for imports and one for exports. Now as simple as this sounds, HMRC has been mandated to facilitate the importing and exporting of goods with the EU but hasn’t been guaranteed any extra staff to help support the increased workload. Not only that but HMRC has been assigned to produce technology based systems to complement these trade declarations but no information has been released on whether those systems will be produced in the event of a No Deal Brexit or only commissioned if No Deal Brexit has been confirmed. Even the statement around the Irish Border seems ridiculous as it passes the buck onto the Irish Government to provide information about imports and exports which seems like a blatant, not my responsibility move by the Government.

Finally, to fail to even address the Financial Sector in this initial report seems like the Government has a blatant disregard to the greatest British exporter and source of tax revenue. Membership of all EU groups relevant to each No Deal topic will be void if No Deal takes place and whilst it seems likely that that would be the case for the Financial Sector, the omission itself must be seen as a kick in the teeth by all those in the industry.

However, on a positive note, the UK will make a net profit on Common Agricultural Distributions on leaving the EU with a No Deal, as the UK currently sees less money return to the UK than it puts in under its pillar as part of its existing membership deal, so there will be some good that comes out of this.

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