Standing in for Theresa May at PMQs, first secretary of state tells Emily Thornberry that Britain will reject ‘punishment deal’

The government could still walk away from negotiations with the EU with no agreement to avoid a “punishment deal”, Theresa May’s deputy, Damian Green, has told a prime minister’s questions dominated by plans for Brexit.

Green, the first secretary of state, stood in for May as she was taking part in the state visit by the king and queen of Spain, with Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, taking the place of Jeremy Corbyn.

Thornberry used all her questions to quiz Green on Brexit, saying the government seemed opaque and confused on the issue, and needed to “get a grip”, with full departure from the EU only 20 months away.

She twice pressed Green on whether walking away from negotiations without a deal, as threatened by May, was still possible given doubts expressed by the chancellor, Philip Hammond. “Will the first secretary clear this up – are ministers just making it up as they’re going along, or is it still the government’s clear policy that no deal is an option?” she asked.

Green replied: “We are saying that it is conceivable that we would be offered a punishment deal that would be worse than no deal. It is not our intention – we want to have a deal, we want to have a good deal.”

Damian Green and Emily Thornberry at PMQs - Politics live Read more

When pressed on the government’s contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit, Green also said that a report from the Office for Budget Responsibility on the fiscal risks of such a route would be published on Thursday.

But pressed for other specifics, Green said little other than the government aimed “to ensure that we get the best deal for Britain”.

Dismissing Thornberry’s concerns, Green said May was leading a “practical, pragmatic government getting on with work in the interests of the British people”.

Thornberry pressed Green on whether a no-deal departure would mean the end of a prospect of any transitional arrangement, as argued for by Hammond.

“The prime minister can hardly storm out of the negotiating room saying that she won’t accept the deal, and then pop her head round the door again and say, can she have two more years to prepare,” Thornberry said. “That’s not how it works. Does he accept that no deal also means no transitional arrangements?”

Green in turn lambasted Labour’s approach to Brexit, saying the party had formulated at least nine different plans for it, and had an approach to negotiations of, “whatever is on offer they will accept”.

Thornberry ended by calling the government’s Brexit plans “a mess”, and mocking May for her call for other parties to contribute ideas on policy.

“Isn’t the truth now that we have a no-deal option on the table, but they won’t tell us what that is, they’ve got contingency plans but they won’t let the public see them?” she said.

“We’ve got a chancellor demanding transitional arrangements which a no-deal option makes impossible, we’ve got a foreign secretary making it up as he’s going along. We’ve got a Brexit secretary so used to overruling his colleagues he’s started overruling himself, and we’ve got a prime minister who’s so bereft of ideas that she’s started putting suggestion boxes around parliament.



“But as a country we have got 20 months to go until Brexit. We absolutely have got to get a grip. And if the party opposite hasn’t got the strength for the task, we’ve absolutely got to get rid of them.”