UK Brexit contingency plans would be ruinous

Labour Party Leader Brendan Howlin said today history will judge those that led the UK to Brexit as treasonous if the UK contingency planning scenarios published in today’s Sunday Times materialise.

Deputy Howlin said:

“If the British people are to run the risk of the nightmare scenario in Government contingency planning depicted in the Sunday Times today they at least need to willingly vote for it.

“If the no deal scenario materialises we owe it to our friends in the UK to support a referendum which would allow the UK to reverse the previous referendum result.

“Mrs May’s government has put party before country at all times in this process.

“If they allow this scenario to materialise it will surely be seen as a treasonous act.

“Representative politicians have one overriding duty – to protect the wellbeing of their citizens. That responsibility is being abdicated.”

Mr Howlin also said it was time for Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, as the leaders of the Opposition, to now take a stand.

“There is no mandate for this and yet as we approach a crucial month of negotiations it is a more likely scenario than any other.

“The British Government has singularly failed to detail any response to the Irish border issues it agreed to in December.

“The latest wheeze amounts to little more than the repartition of Ireland. We are now running out of time.

“The scenarios set out in the contingency planning papers published in today’s Sunday Times will impact on working and poorer people first and deepest.

“The British political establishment has been walking the British people towards the Dover Cliffs for two years now.

“If these reports are even half way accurate, it would be ruinous to continue on this path.”