Jeremy Hunt says he will cancel all leave for civil servants to plan for no-deal Brexit, but not for MPs The Tory leadership contender has fleshed out his plans to pull the UK out of the EU without a deal

Jeremy Hunt will cancel all leave for civil servants over August unless senior mandarins can prove preparations for a no deal Brexit are well in place if he becomes Prime Minister.

Under the plans, MPs would keep their holidays but government staff would be expected to work through the summer to ensure the country was ready for a disorderly exit from the EU, prompting outrage among union bosses.

It came as the Foreign Secretary further fleshed out his plans to pull the UK out of the European Union without a deal, which included setting himself a deadline of 30 September to secure a new agreement with Brussels.

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The Tory leadership contender said he would try to renegotiate a new Brexit deal in just three weeks if he secures the keys to Downing Street, but would cut off all talks if there was no prospect of agreeing fresh terms by the end of September.

Scrap annual leave

And in a move that has infuriated union leaders, Mr Hunt said he would scrap all annual leave over the summer in a bid to prepare the country for a no deal exit.

“All government departments will be expected to act on the basis that we are leaving without a deal on 31 October,” he said. “All August leave will be cancelled unless I have a signed letter from the relevant permanent secretary saying that all preparations in his or her department are on time and on track.”



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It comes as part of a general hardening in the Foreign Secretary’s Brexit stance in an attempt to burnish his Brexiteer credentials to the predominantly Eurosceptic Tory grassroots.

In a bid to increase his appeal to members, Mr Hunt said: “From the start of my premiership, I will work on the basis we are leaving on October 31 without a deal unless the commission changes its position.”

EU talks

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From his first day in office, he said he would begin talks with the heads of the 27 EU member states ready to begin formal negotiations in September. But it remains unclear how these talks will take place as Brussels effectively shuts down over August.Mr Hunt would also establish a new Brexit negotiating team that would include members from the hardline European Research Group, the Democratic Unionist Party, One Nation Tories as well as Scottish and Welsh Conservatives.

The measures form part of his 10 point no deal Brexit plan, which would also include a £20bn “war chest” to help the farming and fishing industries weather the storm and to slash taxes for big business.

War of words

The self-styled “underdog” in the leadership race also ramped up his war of words with Boris Johnson, declaring the public does not want “a showman” to become Prime Minister.

Union bosses launched a scathing attack on his plans to cancel holidays, with Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, branding it “utterly ludicrous”.

“Our members working in job centres and other government departments are not responsible for the mess inflicted on them and the country by the sheer incompetence of ministers,” he said.

“They will not put up with their leave being cancelled.”