Boris Johnson is about to throw UK economy off cliff-edge – leader comment

With hopes of a Brexit trade deal with the EU fading, Boris Johnson is leading the UK towards economic disaster after the transition period ends on 31 December.

Boris Johnson should delay the end of the Brexit transition period if he wants to save people's jobs (Picture: Peter Byrne/WPA pool/Getty Images)

In March 2016, the then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, gave a speech in which he said leaving the European Union would be a “win-win for all” and that the UK could be confident about striking a trade deal with Brussels. His remarks prompted David Cameron, who was to resign as Prime Minister a few months later after defeat in the Brexit referendum, to warn it was wrong to think Britain would be able to get a “sweetheart deal” with Europe.

Four years later, the UK Government is currently leading this country towards a no-deal Brexit at the end of this year.

This week the Government said businesses would need to spend a total of about £7 billion a year on making an extra 215 million customs declarations and warned of potential delays for lorries making the journey across the Channel. The Financial Times reported that several large listed companies had started to stockpile essential supplies. So if they have not already, any businesses with customers in the EU should urgently read the official 208-page how-to guide on importing and exporting after we leave the single market on 31 December.

Given the UK is in one of the most severe recessions in its history because of the coronavirus outbreak, one would have thought the Westminster Government would be moving heaven and earth to avoid causing any further damage to the economy.

But, instead, it appears to be ignoring the danger of a ‘cliff-edge’ Brexit and focusing its energies on protecting the UK internal market or, in the view of Scottish ministers, grabbing power from the devolved governments.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said the UK Government was “rightly taking action to protect jobs, businesses and consumers in every part of the country” by ensuring “that seamless trade continues across all parts of the UK when the EU transition period ends on 31 December”, an argument plucked from those once deployed by Remainers.

A no-deal Brexit would have been unacceptable even in the best of times. To knowingly bring about such an outcome in the midst of the Covid crisis is an act of the utmost folly for which Johnson and co will never be forgiven. They need to swallow their pride, realise their Brexit dream must be delayed and urgently seek an extension of at least a year to the transition period – or, better still, until a deal can be agreed, however long it takes.

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