Brexit: Lords force Theresa May to give MPs single market vote

Brexit: Tories delay handing over 58 ‘secret’ studies

7 November

MPs will have to wait at least three weeks for David Davis to release 58 “secret” economic impact statements despite a parliamentary motion last week demanding they be handed over immediately.

Junior Brexit Minister Steve Baker said the request was “impossible” as the assessments did not exist as separate documents but were instead constantly evolving assessments that needed to be “collated”.

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Labour’s shadow Brexit minister, Matthew Pennycook, said the “farce” has dragged on for far too long.

“Ministers cannot use semantics and doublespeak to avoid the clear instruction that this House has given,” Pennycock reportedly said.

Speaker John Bercow had given Conservatives the deadline of the end of today to release dozens of studies detailing the economic impact of Brexit on sectors ranging from tourism to pharmaceuticals, The Independent reports. Campaigners have threatened legal action if the assessments are not published.

Meanwhile, details of the proposed trade legislation were published today, including provisions for the UK to implement existing EU trade agreements and help ensure firms can access £1.3trn worth of foreign government contracts.

“What is most vital is what is missing from the Bill - the absence of anything to ensure that trade policy is accountable to the public and Parliament,” says political website OpenDemocracy.

The UK must wait until it leave the EU in March 2019 before striking trade deals, and it could be another ten years before key deals are agreed. US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told the BBC that “passporting” of financial services, EU food standards compliance on GM crops, and future trade tariffs could pose negotiating problems, but said he hoped a US-UK deal would take less than a decade to negotiate.

Whitehall’s spending watchdog has warned Chancellor Philip Hammond that the continued economic uncertainty over Brexit could jeopardise public finances, according to a report in The Guardian.

A National Audit Office study found that high levels of government borrowing in the last decade already poses “significant risks” that could be exacerbated by “unexpected developments” such as unforeseen consequences of leaving the EU.

Auditors said that borrowing has increased since by 61% since 2009-10, while interest payments on the UK’s debts had cost £222bn.