The Liberal Democrats have called on David Davis to urgently assess the impact of Brexit on the economy, after he admitted to the Brexit Committee today that the government’s impact assessments don’t even exist.

This is despite him telling the same committee last year that the government was “in the midst of carrying out about 57 sets of analyses, each of which has implications for individual parts of 85% of the economy.”

As recently as six weeks ago, the Brexit Secretary boasted that the impact assessments were being undertaken in “excruciating detail.”

David Davis also said he does not think Brexit will lead to shortage of nurses in NHS, despite there having been a 96% drop in nurses from the EU registering in the UK since the referendum.

Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse, who sits on the Brexit Select Committee, commented:

“It is unbelievable that these long-trumpeted impact assessments don’t even exist, meaning the government has no idea what their Brexit plans will do to the country.

“Ministers must now urgently undertake these impact assessments and ensure people are given the facts.

“Whether it’s through incompetence or insincerity, David Davis has been misleading Parliament from the start.

“He is being completely blasé about the threat Brexit poses to our NHS, economy and young people.

“The utter shambles this government is making of Brexit shows why the public must be given the final say with a chance to stay in the EU.”

Notes

David Davis stated last year that the government is “in the midst of carrying out about 57 sets of analyses, each of which has implications for individual parts of 85% of the economy. Some of those are still to be concluded.” (6th December 2016, link)

David Davis told MPs on 25th October that the Brexit impact assessments are in “excruciating detail” (25th October 2017, link)

Official figures in June showed the number of nurses from the EU registering to work in the UK has dropped by 96% less than a year after the Brexit vote (Guardian, 12th June, link)