Brexit: Minister Accused of Contempt

A Conservative MP has accused a Brexit Minister of “a gross contempt of Parliament” after it was announced that the Government would delay publishing its secret economic impact assessments of Brexit for up to three weeks.

Despite calls by the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow to release the documents by Wednesday evening, the Department for Exiting the EU did not comply and said it would not be able to do so for several weeks.

The delay prompted suspicions that particularly damning sections of the 58 reports on the effects of Brexit could be “edited out” before their public release.

The former Tory minister Anna Soubry (above) immediately condemned the delay, which came after a unanimous motion calling for the release of the reports. “This is a gross contempt of this place,” she told the House. “The Government was specifically asked, if it wasn’t going to vote against the motion, then what was its problem? Disclose this material, and disclose it properly and quickly.”

A series of Opposition MPs also accused Baker of contempt and Soubry made her anger clear. “Would the Minister please take this matter seriously?,” she asked.

“It needs editing”

Steve Baker (left), the Brexit Minister, told the House that the controversial material was not yet ready to be handed to the House committee on Brexit and needed to be examined to ensure that it did not provide sensitive information that could undermine Britain in Brexit negotiations.

“Our analysis is constantly evolving and being updated – it is not, nor has it ever been, a series of impact assessments examining the quantitative impact of Brexit on these sectors,” he said. “Given this, it will take the Government some time to collate and bring together this information in a way that is accessible and informative to the committee.

“We will provide this information to the committee as soon as is possible. We have made clear to the House authorities that we currently expect this to be no more than three weeks.”

Shadow Brexit Minister Matthew Pennycook asked why information that is already available could not be given to the committee immediately, saying the “farce” has “dragged on for far too long”.

Baker replied that the information had to be provided by different departments and collated by the Department for Exiting the European Union.

“Don’t edit it”

Labour’s Hilary Benn, who chairs the Brexit committee, said he was concerned about the Government’s intention to collate and edit the material. “I would expect the committee to receive these documents in the form they were when the motion was carried – in other words, unamended.” The committee could then decide what information to publish, said Benn (above).

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer had warned that if the Government did not hand over the 58 reports by Wednesday night he would press the Speaker to investigate a case of contempt. The Government last week grudgingly accepted a House vote to release the reports after dissident Tories made it clear they would side with Labour on the issue.

by Bob Graham

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