BREXIT WAR CHEST: No more wasting time! Boris and Javid reveal £2 BILLION no deal plan

Following the deadlock between Downing Street and Brussels, Boris Johnson’s new Chancellor is double the amount of cash available for ensuring the UK can withstand a full break with the EU on October 31 to £4.2billion. His cash injection will include £1.1billion for immediate spending on extra border guards, stockpiling vital medicines and a massive publicity blitz aimed at households and businesses. He will also set aside a further £1billion reserve fund to cover emergency contingencies as the Brexit deadline approaches.

The Chancellor said: “With 92 days until the UK leaves the European Union it’s vital that we intensify our planning to ensure we are ready.

“We want to get a good deal that abolishes the anti-democratic backstop. 

“But if we can’t get a good deal, we’ll have to leave without one. This additional £2.1 billion will ensure we are ready to leave on 31 October – deal or no deal.”

His decision to loosen Treasury purse-strings will nearly double the funds available for no-deal contingency measures this year to £4.2billion, raising the total the Treasury has made available to prepare for the UK’s departure from the EU to £6.3billion.

The move follows growing expectations in Whitehall and Brussels that the UK is heading for a no-deal Brexit following the Prime Minister’s insistence that the country will leave the EU on October 31 “come what may” while the EU has so far refused to reopen negotiations over Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement.

Earlier this week, Downing Street said Mr Johnson would not meet EU leaders until they signalled their readiness to remove the controversial backstop border clause from the document.

In his first spending announcement in his new role, the Chancellor will set out details of his £1.1billion package for immediate Brexit preparations.

The sum is to include £344 million to help get new border and customs operations ready to a sudden break with the EU on Halloween.

Home Office chiefs will be able to recruit an extra 500 Border Force officers with the cash, taking the total new personnel added to the service this year to more than 1,000.

Treasury officials say the increased staff and funding will boost capacity for processing UK passport applications this year.

Support for customs officers to train new staff or invest in new computer equipment to help businesses complete customs declarations is to be expanded.

Transport infrastructure around ports including measures to manage traffic disruption in Kent is to be improved.

Government helplines to provide businesses and holidaymakers with travel information will also be improved.

Mr Javid will also make £434 million available to help ensure continuity of vital medicines and medical products, including through freight capacity, warehousing and stockpiling.

A further £138 million is to be allocated for a public communications blitz to instruct businesses and the public on how to prepare for a no-deal Brexit.

An information campaign based around media and online adverts is planned to help households and businesses prepare for Brexit is to be launched this summer.

The Chancellor will also pledge £108 million available to promote and support businesses to ensure they are ready for Brexit.

Measures to help firms will include a national programme of business readiness and support for exporters to capitalise on new trading opportunities with countries outside the EU.

Cash from the Chancellor’s £1billion reserve fund will be available to Whitehall departments and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as other pressures arise in the run up to the Brexit deadline.

Ministers will be able to bid for shares of the cash for their departments to respond to unexpected developments. 

The devolved administrations will also be able to apply for money should their areas face greater pressures than England.

Parliament’s spending watchdog yesterday promised an inquiry into the billions of pounds the Government is plunging into Brexit preparations.

Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, claimed there was “not enough time” to spend the cash effectively in the three months to October 31.

”The Prime Minister is promising to throw hundreds of millions of pounds at Brexit as though that will solve his problems,” she said.

“With three months to go before 31 October there’s not enough time to spend this effectively – recruiting, training and delivering services takes more planning. 

“The Public Accounts Committee will be looking at how much is spent and what it actually delivers.”

Labour’s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said: “This is an appalling waste of tax-payers’ cash, all for the sake of Boris Johnson’s drive towards a totally avoidable No Deal.

“This government could have ruled out No Deal, and spent these billions on our schools, hospitals, and people.

“Labour is a party for the whole of the UK, so we’ll do all we can to block a No Deal, crash-out Brexit – and we’ll deliver a transformative economic policy that delivers for the many, not the few.”

Defending the Government’s approach, Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said: “We have to be ready for the possibility of No Deal not least because if we can’t get any movement from the EU, then they are effectively choosing No Deal on both of our behalfs.”

Mr Johnson and Mr Javid are also understood to be planning billions more on the NHS after Brexit. 

Government insiders were understood to be expecting an announcement of a new hospital-building programme to be made within days.