Quote:Emily Thornberry has accused the government of failing to carry out an economic impact assessment of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, after two key government departments told the shadow international trade secretary they had no such document. As official figures showed a 40.7% decline in exports to the EU in January, Thornberry wrote to the international trade secretary, Liz Truss, to ask why she had published assessments of many much less significant deals, but not the crucial Christmas Eve trade agreement with the EU.
When Thornberry challenged Truss in the House of Commons to produce economic analysis of the deal in January, the minister referred her to the EU taskforce in the Cabinet Office, which spearheaded the fraught negotiations. But when Thornberry made a freedom of information request to the Cabinet Office, she was referred to the Treasury, which replied that it “does not hold a specific document meeting the terms of your request”. Johnson’s spokesman had previously said the government would not be publishing its analysis of the economic impacts of the deal, but Thornberry has now written to Truss to ask whether the government failed to carry out an analysis at all.
“For an agreement of such immense importance for our country’s economy, business, jobs and trade, that is utterly staggering. And when we compare it to the approach taken to the assessment of every other UK trade deal signed over the last two years, it makes no sense whatsoever.” She gave the example of the department’s recent publication of analysis of the deal struck with Albania, a country with which trade was worth £45m in 2019. Trade with the EU is worth 15,000 times as much. Labour suggests ministers failed to do analysis of Brexit deal | Brexit | The Guardian
Sooo:
- The government didn't provide any impact analysis on the biggest trade deal change in the country's history (since joining the EU) while doing so on every other trade regime changes.
- And here's why, because they knew the outcome would be every bit the disaster it has turned out to be.