Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Conservative MP for Cotswold, sits on the Public Accounts Committee and on 24th October they took evidence (HERE) from senior civil servants at the Transport Department about the preparations for Brexit. Bernadette Kelly, the Permanent Secretary was answering questions along with Lucy Chadwick, DG at Transport. Clifton-Brown asked if the department had "war-gamed" the "worst possible scenarios" of the potential problems of getting food into the UK after a no deal Brexit! Those who want to laugh out loud should do so now because it won't be funny next April.
It's hard for anybody who listened to Brexiteers during the referendum campaign to believe that two years later we are now having these sorts of discussions in parliament. Who would have thought a Select Committee would be asking questions about food supplies after Brexit? I don't remember reading this even in the smallest possible font. Where did those sunlit uplands go?
Look at Question 149 where Sir Geoffrey asks:
"...can we be assured that you have, as it were, war-gamed the worst possible scenarios—so that you know how you are going to deal with getting food in and out of this country, for example?"
And a few seconds later (wait for this one):
"Just to use a practical example to get some reassurance, can my farmers who export lamb in big quantities to the continent be reasonably assured that whatever happens it will be given the highest priority, because if it cannot be exported they will be in an awful muddle?".
He was told it was "not a reassurance that we can provide at this point, and it is outside our control. In the example you described, the exporting of those goods is a question for other member states".
In the event of no deal there will not be any lamb exports at all since we will not be an authorised third country, a process that will take at least six months. I think sheep farmers in The Cotswolds might be in a bit more than an awful muddle.
Clifton-Brown campaigned to leave the EU but represents a remain constituency. He welcomed the result (HERE), "I was not expecting Brexit to win, so I was pleased but surprised". I assume his farmer constituents were not expecting to lose their largest export market either but whether they will be pleased or not I'm not entirely sure. I guess not.
And in the week when the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling finally admitted it was "theoretically possible" that flights might be disrupted after next March if there is no deal, this little exchange was fascinating (in the answer to Question 149 again);
Bernadette Kelly: There are probably two areas we might touch on. One is around air services, because that is an important area, and you have talked about food as well. Taking air services as an area of significant public interest, which we have talked about in our technical notices, there it remains our plan A—our preferred goal—that we will have some form of EU-wide agreement in place for March. If that is not possible, we would look to have bilateral agreements in place with other member states.
Chair: From now, 27 bilateral agreements by the end of March?
Bernadette Kelly: Indeed. Yes. I think that is challenging—
Chair: Lovely civil service word there, “challenging”.
Meg Hiller is the chair by the way. You can hear the utter incredulity in her question. For "challenging" read impossible. If you're booking a holiday in the EU next year don't assume you'll be flying there. Because you might not.
