Section:GDN 1N PaGe:11 Edition Date:190808 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 7/8/2019 20:55 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Thursday 8 August 2019 The Guardian •
11 From left,
transport
secretary Grant
Shapps, home
secretary Priti
Patel and
Michael Gove at
the port of Dover
to discuss Brexit
PHOTOGRAPH: KIRSTY
O’CONNOR/PAJasper Jolly
Rebecca SmithersBritain’s food and drinks industry
has asked the government to sus-
pend competition law in the event of
a no-deal Brexit so that they can work
together to avert food shortages with-
out facing large fi nes for collusion.
Collaboration between large com-
panies is controlled to prevent cartels
harming consumers. The Food and
Drink Federation (FDF) told the BBC
that the government had not yet con-
fi rmed whether companies would be
able to work together to direct food
supplies to the areas of greatest need
if there were delays as a result of crash-
ing out of the EU.
Many trade experts, from the gov-
ernment’s analysts to the Bank of
England, expect that a no-deal Brexit
will cause severe disruption at ports,
potentially delaying food imports.
Boris Johnson has committed to leav-
ing the EU on 31 October whatever the
implications, having put Michael Gove
in charge of preparing to exit without
a deal.
The FDF’s members, including large
companies such as Associated British
Foods, Mondelēz and Nestlé, risked
incurring large fi nes from the Com-
petition and Markets Authority if they
collaborated, the industry body told
the Guardian.
Tim Rycroft, the FDF’s chief oper-
ating offi cer, said: “Competition law
is important, but in the event of no-
deal disruption, if the government
wants the food supply chain to work
together to tackle likely shortages – to
decide where to prioritise shipments- they will have to provide cast-iron
written reassurances that competition
Julian Borger
WashingtonThe secretary of state, Mike Pompeo,
has said that the US will be “on the
doorstep, pen in hand” ready to sign
a new trade deal with the UK as soon
as possible after Brexit.
Pompeo was speaking alongside
Dominic Raab, who was making his
fi rst trip to Washington as UK foreign
secretary. Raab restated the British
government’s determination to leave
the EU at the end of October, and
claimed that Donald Trump, who he
met at the White House on Tuesday
evening “was eff usive in his warmth
for the United Kingdom”.
“It was amazing to hear an Americanlaw will not be strictly applied to those
discussions.”
The CMA could be legally obliged
to fi ne the manufacturers if they work
together. The CMA does not have the
power to decide to waive the fi nes, but
the government can order a suspen-
sion of the fi nes under exceptional
circumstances. The government has
used this power four times before,
including to protect petrol supplies
during the 2012 fuel crisis.
Andrew Tyrie, the former Conserv-
ative MP who leads the CMA, said:
“This is a matter for government as
the secretary of state can exempt cer-
tain agreements from competition law
in the public interest. The CMA stands
ready to advise government as neces-
sary in its preparations .”
Rycroft said the food industry was
still waiting for the government to
guarantee that this would happen.
“We asked for these reassurances at
the end of last year and, despite sup-
port from Defra, we’re still waiting.
Hopefully, now that Michael Gove is
in charge of all no-deal planning, we
can make progress.”
A spokeswoman at the Department
for Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy said : “ Our top priority is sup-
porting consumers and businesses in
their preparations for Brexit. We are
working closely with the food indus-
try to support preparations .”president talk about our country in
such warm terms,” the foreign secre-
tary said.
After meeting with Raab yester-
day, Pompeo said: “We support the
United Kingdom’s sovereign choice.
However Brexit ultimately shakes out,
the US will be at the doorstep, pen in
hand, ready to sign on to a new free
trade agreement at the earliest pos-
sible time.”
He said he was confi dent that the
manner of the UK’s departure from the
EU would safeguard the principles of
the Good Friday Agreement.
A no-deal Brexit without any res-
olution to what would happen to the
border on the island of Ireland is likely
to jeopardise the 1998 peace agree-
ment, which relies on the unrestricted
fl ow of people and goods.
Any US trade deal with the UK
would have to be approved by Con-
gress. The Democratic leadership, as
well as the Irish-American Republi-
cans, in the House of Representatives
have warned they would block a US-UK
trade deal if Brexit aff ects the Good Fri-
day peace agreement.Journal Leader comment Page 2 Food Firms
seek approval
to cooperate
after no deal
US Trade
America ‘pen
in hand’ ready
for agreement
circumstances, which I don’t think
these would be.”‘The Queen could sack him’
Thomas Eason, doctoral researcher
at Nottingham University’s school of
politics and international relations,
said the theory Johnson could lose
a vote of no confi dence but refuse
to resign and so prevent the Queen
from asking someone else to form a
new government “assumes that she
could not simply sack the former
PM”. He added: “There is some
debate over whether the Queen has
the power to sack a prime minister,
in part driven by the Cabinet manual
claiming that ‘prime ministers hold
offi ce unless and until they resign’.
But my own belief is that the Queen
still has the reserve power to do this,
and I think this is a dominant view
among other experts.
“Obviously, for this to happen, it
would need to be clear to the Queen
who to call upon, and that could be
tricky. Whatever medium used, it
would need to be clear who should
replace Johnson before the Queen
would be in a position to sack him.”of that 14-day window as it was for
the prime minister to recommend a
suitable election date to the Queen,
and only when he has done so was
the date of dissolution determined.
There was nothing to stop
Johnson “playing out time”. Though
he could be accused of acting
unconstitutionally, it would not be
unlawful, and therefore not for the
Queen to intervene, he added.
Parliament could pass a motion
requiring him to resign. The only
circumstances in which the Queen
could dismiss him would be if, in
those 14 days, there was cast-iron
evidence an alternative government
and prime minister was available.
“It’s not for the Queen to use any
discretionary power. And, during
her reign she has acted throughout
on the advice of her prime minister
and it has proved a good rule.
If parliament is unhappy with
anything, it is for parliament to take
the relevant actions,” he said.
“The Queen’s powers rest on
convention. She’s got quite wide
legal powers but in a constitutional
monarchy she shouldn’t use
them except in very extreme
‘Government
can exempt
certain
agreements
from
competition
law in public
interest’Andrew Tyrie
CMA▲ UK food companies say a no-deal
Brexit will cause disruption at ports
and potentially delay food importsRobert HazellVernon BogdanorThomas Easonsti
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