Shadow Secretary for Europe, Mark Isherwood AM, has asked the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Finance to “respond to the clear duty that Government Ministers have not to publish anything that could risk exposing negotiating positions”, following the furore this week over a leaked Brexit report.
The leaked study suggests that in three different scenarios the UK economy would grow more slowly than it would if it stayed in the European Union, but speaking in the Chamber yesterday Mr Isherwood stressed that the report was incomplete and partial and has stated that “almost every single forecast of the economic impact of Brexit has been wrong”.
He said:
“You will know, as a Government Minister, that you have to have the freedom to ask your officials to do blue-sky planning, including all options, including some which you may be horrified by, so that the Government, in private, can decide what to prioritise, bring forward, propose and make public.
“An early draft of ongoing analysis in support of the UK Government's Brexit negotiations and preparations looked at different off-the-shelf arrangements currently existing, as well as other external estimates. It did not set out or measure the details of desired outcomes, which the UK Government says is a new, deep and special partnership with the EU, or predict the conclusions of negotiations.
“It also contained many caveats and was hugely dependent on many assumptions, where significantly more work was needed to make use of this analysis and draw out conclusions. In fact, this leaked analysis of just three scenarios was therefore incomplete and partial. As a Government Minister, therefore, how do you respond to the clear duty that Government Ministers have not to publish anything that could risk exposing negotiating positions until they have concluded what their negotiation positions are and have reached the stage where such information would not compromise them when around the table with other parties?”
In his response the Cabinet Secretary replied: “I have no objection whatsoever to UK Ministers commissioning analysis that looks at a range of scenarios, whichever of those scenarios they think might be useful. It is a sensible thing for them to do. But I'm afraid that Mr Isherwood was reading out yesterday's circular from central office and not today's, because today, the UK Government has agreed to make all of this public. So, I'm afraid that all the things that he was worried about, which UK Government Ministers were worried about yesterday, have evaporated today in the House of Commons.
“If Governments have anxieties that documents that they put into the public domain contain information that might be damaging to the public interest, then they are, of course, able to redact parts of the information that would have that impact. It is not an excuse for failing to make available to the public information that allows a proper public debate of the most important issue that we will face during the lifetime of this Assembly and beyond to be conducted on the basis of the widest possible analysis and information.”
Mr Isherwood added: “At the time the Finance Secretary made these comments to me all the UK Government had said was that it would allow MPs and peers to see the report on a confidential basis after a Commons debate. Even then, almost every single forecast on the economic impact of Brexit has been wrong.”