No plan for Brexit, leaked memo suggests

A leaked memo prepared for the Cabinet Office has suggested that the government has no overall Brexit plan and a strategy may not be agreed for six months.

Obtained by The Times and seen by the BBC, the memo, titled Brexit Update, warns that Whitehall is working on 500 Brexit-related projects and could need 30,000 extra civil servants to meet the workload - but ‘divisions within the Cabinet’ mean that there is still no common exit strategy.

The Times identifies cabinet splits between Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit Secretary David Davis and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox on one side, and Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark on the other.

Government figures, including Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, said they ‘didn't recognise’ the claims made in the memo, and maintained plans to invoke Article 50 by the end of March next year.

The report criticises Prime Minister Theresa May, saying she is ‘acquiring a reputation of drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself’, which is an approach ‘unlikely to be sustainable’.