Section:GDN 1N PaGe:12 Edition Date:190812 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 11/8/2019 20:55 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Monday 12 Aug ust 2019
(^12) National
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National
Politics
PA Media
Britons have spent £4bn stockpiling
goods in preparation for a possible no-
deal Brexit, new research suggests.
One in fi ve are already hoarding
food, drinks and medicine, spend-
ing an extra £380 each, according to a
survey by fi nance provider Premium
Credit. About 800,000 people have
spent more than £1,000 building up
stockpiles ahead of 31 October.
If the UK leaves with no deal, busi-
nesses predict there will be short-term
supply problems, which the govern-
ment says it will take steps to mitigate.
Similar research in the weeks
leading up to the original 31 March
deadline for the UK to leave the EU
found that about 17 % of the popula-
tion had built up supplies, with a total
stockpile spend calculated at £4.6bn.
Of those stockpiling, 74% surveyed
said they had bought extra food, 50%
had stockpiled medicines and 46% are
ho arding spare drinks.
Stockpiling is also hitting corp-
orate cashfl ow. Adam Morghem of
Premium Credit explained: “The level
of stockpiling by British businesses
and households is well documented,
but there has been little focus on the
impact this has had on cashfl ow, which
has been quite negative.”
Businesses of all types are pre-
paring. Last week, the boss of Pets at
Home revealed the retailer is stockpil-
ing pet food, while Domino’s Pizza said
it had £7m worth of toppings in stock.
Rolls-Royce said it had spent £100m on
extra warehousing and parts.
Wealthy buyers are also importing
more luxury cars before the Brexit
deadline in order to avoid the tariff s
that might follow a hard Brexit. More
than 3,800 were imported in the past
year, a 16% increase on the previous 12
months according to law fi rm Boodle
Hatfi eld. “A no-deal Brexit could mean
luxury car imports become 32% more
expensive overnight,” Fred Clark of
Boodle Hatfi eld said.
Stockpiling Britons have spent
£4bn on Brexit preparations
Peter Walker
Political correspondent
The Conservatives will lose signifi cant
votes to the Liberal Democrats or other
remain parties if they force through a
no-deal Brexit against the will of par-
liament, the veteran politician Michael
Heseltine has warned.
Imposing a no-deal departure
without MPs’ consent would be “an
intolerable position for democracy”,
said Lord Heseltine, who is heavily
critical of Dominic Cummings, Boris
Johnson’s lead adviser and Brexit
enforcer.
“It is absolutely central that parlia-
ment should be able to call to account
people who represent them as minis-
ters, and at the moment we’re being
told by a particular fi gure, who’s proud
of it, that he’s more or less running the
show,” Heseltine said on Sky’s Soph y
Ridge on Sunday show.
In response, the policing minister,
Kit Malthouse, a long time Johnson
ally, accused Heseltine of being among
Conservative fi gures from the past
who had “never quite reconciled
themselves to the idea” of Brexit.
Heseltine, whose close to 30-year
front bench career culminated in his
stint as deputy prime minister under
John Major, has been a persistent critic
of Brexit. He lost the Tory whip after
saying he had voted Liberal Democrat
in the European elections in May.
Heseltine’s comments came as
a report published by the Institute
for Government, an infl uential con-
stitutional thinktank, warned of the
increasing likelihood of a no-deal
Brexit on 31 October, given the lack of
time to secure a new deal with the EU
and the diminishing number of ways in
which MPs could block such a process.
Adding to the growing possibility
of no deal, the Irish government yes-
terday insisted the border backstop
would not be up for renegotiation at
a planned meeting between Johnson
and the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar.
In a joint comment piece in the Sun-
day Times with the Labour peer Betty
Boothroyd, Heseltine argued a no-deal
departure would be a “grotesque act
of national self-harm”.
Speaking to Ridge, he pointed to
new polling that show ed the gov-
ernment could lose seats to the Lib
Dems. “I can tell you that large num-
bers of Conservatives will not vote
for a no-deal Brexit. They will vote
for whatever party appears to stand
behind a European policy,” he said.
“Large numbers of Conservatives,
friends of mine, colleagues of mine,
approach me every day asserting the
fact that they will vote for Britain’s
national self-interest, despite the loy-
alty they feel to the party.”
Heseltine was similarly scathing
about Johnson’s government, and
Cummings’ central and increasingly
publicised role in it. “The economy
is stalled, infl ation is rising and the
pound is in serious diffi culties and
threatens to get worse, investment
is on hold,” he said. “There is an
atmosphere of total indecision and
ineff ectiveness at the heart of govern-
ment. Because, let’s be frank, there is
no parliamentary majority for what
this government is threatening to do.
“Because this government is com-
pletely obsessed with the preposterous
idea that we should leave Europe with-
out a deal, the whole of the agenda for
running this country, for modernising
this country, is on hold.”
Heseltine said Cummings sees him-
self as a revolutionary. “We’ve got this
guy, who is now in direct contact with
the British media, briefi ng them on
policies, scathingly attacking mem-
bers of the House of Commons, and
parading himself as the mastermind
behind the government. That is an
intolerable position for democracy.
“It is absolutely central that parlia-
ment should be able to call to account
people who represent them as min-
isters, and at the moment we’re now
being told by a particular fi gure, who’s
proud of it, that he’s more or less run-
ning the show.”
Speaking on the same show, Malt-
house, who served as deputy London
mayor under Johnson, dismissed the
criticism. He sa id there was still a huge
amount of work to be done on no-deal
preparations, but that ministers were
planning carefully. “Alongside that,
obviously, profoundly the government
is trying to get a deal,” he said. “And we
want the Europeans to recognise that
a deal is in both of our interests, that
they need to start talking to us about
what that might look like.”
Journal Matthew d’Ancona Page 3
‘Intolerable’ push for no deal
will drive voters to remain
parties, warns Heseltine
Plan for new 50p
The chancellor is said to be drawing
up plans for millions of 50p Brexit
coins to be minted in time for
Britain’s departure from the EU ,
according to the Sunday Telegraph.
Sajid Javid’s predecessor,
Philip Hammond, had planned a
limited edition of about 10,000 to
be sold to collectors for £10 each.
Javid’s proposal for the coins to
be produced for mass circulation
from 31 October is being portrayed
as a statement of intent that the
Treasury is fully behind Brexit.
The y would carry the words
“friendship with all nations” and be
stamped 31 October 2019. But the
coin has to be signed off by the privy
council , which is not due to meet
again until October. PA Media
Jessica Elgot and Peter Walker
The Green MP, Caroline Lucas, has
challenged 10 high-profi le female pol-
iticians to block a no-deal Brexit and
seek legislation for a fresh referendum
in a cabinet of national unity, includ-
ing Labour’s Emily Thornberry; the
Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson;
and the former Tory cabinet minister
Justine Greening.
Lucas off ered to broker a deal with
female MPs from all the main political
parties in Westminster, as well as the
SNP’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon.
If parliament passed a motion of no
confi dence in Boris Johnson’s govern-
ment, the plan would be for them to
form a temporary cabinet, existing
only to propose a Brexit referendum,
likely to be remain versus no deal. The
move by Lucas is the fi rst public off er
to Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP,
as well as Tory rebels.
The move is likely to face a mixed
reception in Westminster from lead-
ing figures co ordinating planning
against no deal. Several are against a
second referendum, including Sir Oli-
ver Letwin and Nick Boles.
Labour has ruled out backing a
replacement government not led by
Jeremy Corbyn, limiting the chances
that the plan could succeed. Thorn-
berry, the shadow foreign secretary,
appear s unlikely to back such a move.
Lucas, who is understood to have
begun talks with the women she has
addressed in her open letter, sent
the off er to other female politicians
including Change’s Anna Soubry, the
independent Heidi Allen, the SNP’s
‘A cabinet of national unity’
Lucas urges female MPs to put
aside parties and fi ght no deal
▲ Lord Heseltine said leaving the EU
without a deal was ‘preposterous’
Caroline’s cabinet
Who could be the
contenders for
her all-female
frontbench?
Deputy PM?
Jo Swinson
Foreign secretary?
Emily Thornberry
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