What could our NHS & Social Care services have done with the £4.4bn wasted on Brexit planning?

Tory government spent at least £4.4 billion on Brexit planning says Audit Office

22,000 civil servants worked on Brexit, £92m wasted in NO Deal "losses" paid to ferry companies & Eurotunnel, all before the actual leaving costs kick in.

In the first detailed estimate of the cost of Brexit, the National Audit Office (NAO) says the Britain's government spent at least 4.4 billion pounds of taxpayers' money on preparations to leave the European Union. The NAO said that most of the money was spent on staff costs, building new infrastructure and paying for external advice.

£1.9bn was spent on staffing, 1.5 billion went on new infrastructure and £288m on external consultants and lawyers and £1.5bn on new infrastructure, computer systems and advertising. Some £92m was classed as "losses", including £50m paid to ferry companies and £33m to Eurotunnel as part of the abortive efforts to provide extra cross-Channel capacity in the case of hold-ups in Dover in a no-deal situation.

National Audit Office study found that more than 22,000 civil servants across 18 government departments were working on Brexit preparations by the end of last year, with the task consuming 12 per cent of all senior mandarins and 5 per cent of the total workforce.said no fewer than 22,000 government officials were working on Brexit at the peak when Britain was on the verge of leaving the EU without a divorce deal last October.

Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Alistair Carmichael called on ministers to "come clean" on exactly how the Brexit billions were spent.

"Billions of pounds have been thrown away in a bid to paper over the Tories' Brexit mess," said Mr Carmichael. "The public have a right to know where it is all going. In the face of major floods and the coronavirus threat, we have to ask if the government knows its own spending priorities."

Reuters LONDON report that, Officials had to increase training for customs officials, hire more staff to negotiate trade deals and improve infrastructure around ports. More than half of the money was spent by three departments: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Home Office, along with HM Revenue and Customs.

The NAO figure does not include spending after 1 January this year, losses caused by diverting staff and resources away from departmental responsibilities or future costs such as the £39bn divorce settlement and the ongoing bill for additional red tape. And it does not cover additional costs to businesses and individuals from EU withdrawal.

Whilst the NAO report is a first glimpse into the cost of Brexit, the Government seems coy about letting the taxpayers into the breakdown of expenditure. Meg Hillier MP , who chairs parliament's public accounts committee, said the data was limited and that the Treasury seemed unconcerned by the lack of transparency.

Given how such a sum could have being used to properly resource the NHS, social care and our schools here in Suffolk, let alone deal with the impact of climate change on flooded communities, its is not surprising that the Tories don't want the public to see how they splashed the Brexit cash.

Sources:Andrew MacAskill Britain's government spent £4.4 billion on Brexit planning - Reuters

Andrew Woodcock Boris Johnson's government has already spent £4.4bn on Brexit preparations, new figures reveal - Independent

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