Of course we did. We might not have had to, if the previous government, ministers *and* officials, had not bungled the negotiation so badly so that the referendum result could not be delivered. We were in the biggest constitutional crisis for a hundred years. That obviously had to be the Government's overwhelming priority. "No deal" Brexit planning certainly revealed many of the systemic weaknesses that became even more obvious during the pandemic, and even enabled us to build plans that turned out to be useful (eg on drugs supply), but it certainly did not cause them.
Of course we did. We might not have had to, if the previous government, ministers *and* officials, had not bungled the negotiation so badly so that the referendum result could not be delivered. We were in the biggest constitutional crisis for a hundred years. That obviously had to be the Government's overwhelming priority. "No deal" Brexit planning certainly revealed many of the systemic weaknesses that became even more obvious during the pandemic, and even enabled us to build plans that turned out to be useful (eg on drugs supply), but it certainly did not cause them.
I know I'm probably wasting my time with people like this 👇, but since many are making a similar point: The final withdrawal agreement was signed mid-October 2019 & 'no deal' planning accordingly stood down; The election was held on 12 December. No one outside Wuhan had heard of covid until January 2020. It is therefore simply a chronological impossibility that Brexit work in 2019 could have distracted from an unforeseeable crisis in 2020. As it turned out, no deal planning in 2019 actually *helped* us manage aspects of that crisis. Moreover, even after we had formally left at the end of January, we remained part of the EU's economic arrangements till end-2020. So there was no economic shock and no new arrangements to prepare for during the height of the covid crisis. This whole "Brexit distraction" theory simply does not accord with the facts.
@DavidGHFrost The Tories were offered the chance to pause brexit, in order to deal with the pandemic. But were too gung ho and were afraid that the public might see how the EU could work together, and want a 2nd referendum.
@DavidGHFrost Maybe if you’d considered some combination of EFTA-EEA- either as a medium term stepping stone out, or as a destination- managing Brexit would have been much less difficult
@DavidGHFrost You are a disgrace. You bungled the withdrawal agreement and always seek to blame others. Your mediocrity together with your petty xenophobia shines through.
@DavidGHFrost Vote Leave: said they had a plan said the EU would bang on our doors on 24/6/2016 to gift us a deal said we had no liabilities said the EU would collapse soon said they need us more than we need them said they had many solutions to the NI border
@DavidGHFrost No. This is solely on you, you delivered a disastrous Brexit and you don’t get to rewrite history.
@DavidGHFrost This is the absolute height of arrogance: to suggest that a Brexit deal (which we know you didn’t really believe in) was more important than the lives of the British citizens that you worked for should put you behind bars. Utter disgrace.
@DavidGHFrost Thank you for confirming that Brexit was the prime reason why so many more died than would otherwise have done due to the pandemic.