Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Tuesday 29th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

If we are going to trade statistics, at the end of the last Labour Government, 20% of young people were unemployed and 1.4 million people were on welfare and left on the scrapheap. We have record employment and the lowest unemployment since the mid-1970s. The way we are going to solve the issue of poverty is to help people get on, help people get into work and get our education levels up.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

10. What recent contingency plans he has made to prepare for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Philip Hammond)]

Leaving the EU with a deal remains the Government’s top priority, but as a responsible Government we are, of course, also making preparations to ensure that the country is ready for every eventuality across all sectors of the economy. I have made substantial funding available to prepare for the UK’s exit from the EU in all scenarios. HMRC has written on no-deal preparations to 145,000 EU-only traders, and the Government have produced a partner pack to support stakeholders in preparing for a no-deal scenario.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

And worth every penny, isn’t it? How much in total is the Chancellor spending on delivering the people’s decision?

[Mr Hammond]

Let me put it this way: since 2016 I have made more than £4.2 billion available for EU exit planning, and funding for the 2019-20 financial year has now been allocated to Departments. That is funding to prepare the Government for leaving the EU in any scenario. In addition, I have made arrangements to ensure that Departments and the devolved Administrations can fund measures to address urgent civil contingencies in a no-deal scenario.