Health select committee chair Sarah Wollaston says ministers should act before attempt by Labour to force release of documents

A Conservative select committee chair has said that she and colleagues will be urging the government to agree to publish a series of documents outlining the potential impact of Brexit.



Sarah Wollaston, the Tory MP at the helm of parliament’s health select committee, wants ministers to act before an attempt by Labour to force the release of the papers.



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MPs are to debate a Labour motion in the Commons on Wednesday demanding that the government publishes 58 studies into the impact of Brexit on different sectors of the UK.



The shadow Brexit Secretary, Keir Starmer, believes that he has identified an ancient parliamentary law that will make a vote on his party’s opposition day debate binding.



Four or five Tories are believed to be ready to vote with Labour, with Anna Soubry telling the Guardian she would need to be persuaded not to.



Wollaston did not say she would vote with the opposition, but made clear that she believed it was right to publish the material, which relates to the sectoral impacts of the leaving the EU.



“As it stands the vote at the end of the process will offer parliament a choice between any deal that has been agreed or a cliff-edge Brexit,” she said, stressing that MPs voting no would not result in maintaining the status quo and cancelling Brexit.



“For that reason it is very important that the public knows the risks of a cliff-edge Brexit with no deal. I think the risk assessments should be in the public domain and available to parliament and select committees.”



Wollaston’s committee has urged the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to publish the four sectoral assessments relevant to his department, which she argued would help her committee with the second part of its inquiry into Brexit and health.

“It is essential for the committee to have the relevant papers for that inquiry to be fully informed on behalf of the public. How can we do our job without understanding the risks?”



Wollaston said she and Tory colleagues would be making the argument to the government of the benefits of publishing the information.



Soubry added simply: “The government should publish them.”



The former Tory cabinet minister Dominic Grieve has also called for the papers to be published.



The former Tory MP Ben Howlett, who is vice-chair of the Conservative Group for Europe, added: “NHS staff and patients want transparency as to what Brexit means for their jobs and for the service. The government must listen to the recommendations of the health select committee and publish impact assessments urgently. Given that change in the NHS takes a long time anyway, earlier publication will help to ensure the NHS can whether the storm ahead.”



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Starmer will argue that the papers should be given to parliament’s select committees for the sake of transparency – with the chairs then able to decide whether to publish. Wollaston has said she would put any documents given her to committee on its website for full disclosure.

The push comes after 120 MPs called on the Brexit secretary, David Davis, to publish his assessments in a letter. The minister has been repeatedly pressed by the Labour MP Seema Malhotra, who is on the Brexit committee. He told her that cabinet members had seen only summaries of the reports.



Labour’s motion on Wednesday will use an ancient parliamentary procedure that they argue gives the House of Commons the power to require ministers to release government papers to parliament. Unlike typical opposition day debates, the motion, if passed, will be binding on the government, they say.



Starmer told the Guardian: “There is huge uncertainty about the impact of the government’s approach to Brexit on jobs and the economy.



“And yet, because of the Tories’ blanket ban on publishing any information about their own impact assessments, businesses and public services have been left in the dark and unable to plan for the future.



“Theresa May should stop blocking parliament from doing its job and start listening to the legitimate concerns of Labour and her own MPs, including Sarah Wollaston, about guaranteeing greater transparency over Brexit.”