Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has admitted that the government will have to take steps to ensure that there are adequate food supplies for Britain to cover the eventuality of a no-deal departure from the European Union.

In testimony to the Brexit select committee on Tuesday, the minister dismissed claims that the government was stockpiling provisions. However, he acknowledged that it would work with the food industry to ensure that a no-deal outcome would not disrupt supply.



“We will look at this issue in the round and make sure that there’s adequate food supplies,” Raab told the Brexit select committee. “It would be wrong to describe it as the government doing the stockpiling … of course the idea that we only get food imports into this country from one continent is not appropriate.”

While Raab emphasised that he viewed the risk of disruption to food supplies as minimal, his description of the government’s contingency planning will alarm those who fear that the UK will crash out of the EU without a deal.

His admission follows Theresa May’s instruction that no-deal planning be stepped up after the Chequers summit, in part to show Brussels she was serious about leaving without a deal. The chancellor has already set aside £3bn for contingency planning.

Also on Tuesday, health secretary Matt Hancock told MPs that the Department of Health and Social Care is working with industry to stockpile drugs, medical devices and supplies, with the focus on medicines with a short shelf-life that may need to be flown in if there is disruption at British ports.

“We are working right across government to ensure that the health sector and the industry are prepared and that people’s health will be safeguarded in the event of a no-deal Brexit,” Hancock said.

He said he was “confident” that a deal could be reached but added that it was “responsible” to prepare for a range of outcomes.



Over the coming weeks, the government will unveil about 70 other contingency measures issuing advice, some of it likely to be alarming, to households and businesses on how to prepare for crashing out.

The UK is hoping to reach a deal with Brussels on withdrawal by October, but the compromise proposals agreed by the cabinet are so far finding little support in Brussels or in parliament, increasing the likelihood of leaving without a deal.

Transport officials are considering transforming the M26 in Kent into a lorry park for hundreds of HGVs to help cope with tailbacks from the port of Dover when up to 10,000 lorries a day suddenly need customs checks to enter the EU.

There have also been suggestions that the Ministry of Defence has been looking into how the armed forces could be deployed to carry out various civil functions, including using RAF jets to transport food supplies across the country.

Last week, Amazon became the latest in a growing list of businesses to express its concerns, when its UK boss warned the Brexit secretary that Britain would face “civil unrest” within weeks of leaving the EU without a deal.

During sometimes terse questioning from MPs, Raab admitted there were some risks in the short-term from leaving without a deal but that the UK had “huge amounts going for it” and its “best days lie ahead”.

He told MPs: “I’m not quite as pessimistic as some others, when I look to the medium and longterm. There’s no doubt that we would have to look at the uncertainty that we’d face in the short term.

“I’m not going to wallow in pessimism about the state of this country in relation to Brexit. We’re going to go into these negotiations with economic confidence and political ambition. I’m not going to allow us to be cowed in a corner afraid of our own shadow.”

Raab said that he would not “drip feed” information on planning for a no-deal Brexit but would instead rely on the series of technical notices over the summer to explain what the government was doing to mitigate risks to households and business.

Brexit minister Martin Callanan was dismissive of food stockpiling claims: “It seems to me to be a fairly ridiculous scare story. There are many countries outside of the European Union that manage to feed their citizens perfectly satisfactorily without the benefit of EU processes.”

However, a cross-party business committee warned last month that failure to secure a free trade deal with the EU would be “disastrous” for Britain’s £28bn processed food and drink industry, while reverting to World Trade Organisation rules would have a “seismic” impact on the UK’s largest manufacturing sector.

Germany foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said in an interview published on Wednesday the British government needed to get moving in Brexit negotiations. He told the Funke group of newspapers: “In order for the departure to be carried out in as orderly a way as possible, the British government will need to move.” He added: “On the one hand on the issue of the border between Northern Ireland and EU member the Irish Republic, and, secondly, on the undivided internal market, where Britain cannot cherrypick.”

Maas made clear the time pressure was on the UK, saying: “We won’t enter any deals that would be to the detriment of Europe.”

Meanwhile, the government sought to reassure businesses, universities and local organisations that any funding they secure through the EU, until the end of 2020, will be guaranteed by the government in the event of a no deal.

Just hours after the government published its white paper on withdrawing from the EU, and as Raab appeared in front of the MPs, May announced she was taking back control of negotiations with Brussels from her new Brexit secretary.

May said she would now lead the crunch talks with the EU while Raab, who was appointed two weeks ago, would be left in charge of domestic preparations, no-deal planning and legislation.

The move was swiftly characterised as a “sidelining” of the Brexit secretary by No 10’s Europe unit, led by May’s chief Brexit adviser, Olly Robbins, with the prime minister also taking fewer than 50 officials from his department.

Raab described the move as a “shifting of the Whitehall deckchairs” but said it was primarily about establishing “one team, one chain of command”.

Robbins, who has become the Brexiters’ bete noire as a result of the power he wields over Brexit policy, insisted to Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg that he was only carrying out the role May demanded of him. “[My] authority derives from the PM,” he said.

The Brexit secretary confirmed the government was prepared to make further concessions to reach a final deal – but warned there were limits to what the UK would accept and stressed the EU should take the offer seriously.

“Of course it’s a negotiation, there’s no point saying there isn’t,” he said. “It would be too crude to say ‘meets the EU halfway’ but certainly is mindful of the considerations they have got.”