Monday’s Budget comes at a delicate point in the Brexit negotiations. I say in The Sun this morning, that a bolder government and Chancellor would turn this timing to their advantage. They would use this Budget to give a preview of what the UK would do in the event of no deal. No deal planning shouldn’t just be about logistics, but about how the UK would respond economically to this challenge.
Philip Hammond could announce that if it is ‘no deal’ the UK would slash to zero tariffs on manufactured goods from all around the world, bring in complete tax relief on all business investment for the next three years and cut capital gains tax.
The EU, which doesn’t want a hyper-competitive economy 26 miles off its coastline, would notice. It might, as no deal planning is meant to do, make the EU more prepared to compromise a bit to reach a deal that’ll be acceptable to the UK.
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