Government should be forced to produce independent study on effects of no deal, says ex-PM

Gordon Brown has called for parliament to order an independent inquiry into the consequences of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU.

The former Labour prime minister said MPs should seize control of the House of Commons agenda and instruct the government to produce independent research on the effects of crashing out of the bloc without an agreement on 31 October.

Brown also said the expected inability of G7 leaders to issue a joint communique after the summit in Biarritz was a sign of a “leaderless world”, describing the group as “impotent”.

At the summit on Sunday, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, claimed the UK could “easily cope” with a no-deal Brexit and said EU leaders would be at fault if no agreement was reached.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about how MPs who oppose a no-deal Brexit could hold the government to account, Brown said: “I think what they should do is agree that they take over the business of the House of Commons for a day, as they did before, pass a law that says that the government must instruct and produce an independent report on the consequences of a no deal.

“And that should be before the House of Commons before we ever go ahead. That would be a sensible way forward.”

Johnson has made leaving the EU by 31 October with or without a deal with Brussels a central pledge of his administration.

Johnson has stressed the UK’s commitment to internationalism at the G7 summit in the south of France despite ongoing Brexit uncertainty. The organisation was not expected to produce a communique after the summit following disagreement over Russia’s readmission, the climate emergency and trade tensions.

Brown added: “When you have got an organisation that cannot agree on a communique, that has got no agreed agenda, that’s got no agreement even on membership, and has broken down, as far as I can see, over the weekend into small huddles of individuals doing bilateral discussions, you’ve really got a leaderless world.

“It is rightly called by some the G Zero because the world seems to be more divided than I can remember. And that means that the G7 is impotent.”