Hancock warns of UK drug supply shortages in no-deal Brexit
By Frank Prenesti
Date: Saturday 08 Dec 2018
(Sharecast News) - The UK would face difficulties getting medical supplies in through the crucial port of Dover as trade was held up under a 'no-deal' Brexit, Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned on Friday.
In a letter to healthcare providers, Hancock told drug companies to expect "significantly reduced access" to trade routes for six months if Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan was voted down next Tuesday and no deal was struck with the European Union.
"These impacts are likely to be felt mostly on the short straits crossings into Dover and Folkestone, where the frequent and closed-loop nature of these mean that both exports and imports would be affected," Hancock said.
"The revised cross-government planning assumptions show that there will be significantly reduced access across the short straits, for up to six months."
"This is very much a worst-case scenario. In a 'no deal' exit from the EU we would, of course, be pressing member states hard to introduce pragmatic arrangements to ensure the continued full flow of goods which would be to their benefit as well as ours."
"Nevertheless, as a responsible government, we have a duty to plan for all scenarios."
Drug companies were told in August by the government to create stockpiles in the UK with six weeks worth of supplies.
Hancock's warning was part of a more general offensive by pro-deal ministers to win support for May's plan.
MP's will vote on the withdrawal agreement December 11 with May facing a defeat. However, parliament pushed through an amendment on Monday that gives it a say on whatever happens next if the current plan is rejected.
May is said to be exploring all options, but it is difficult to see what she could come up with at the last minute that would please all sides.
A proposal to resolve the impasse by creating a "Norway-plus" plan that would place it outside the EU but inside a free trade area was rejected on Friday by Norwegian politicians.
Heidi Nordby Lunde, an MP in Norway's governing Conservative party, and leader of Norway's European movement said the idea was "not an option".
"We have been telling you this for one and a half years since the referendum and how this works, so I am surprised that after all these years it is still part of the grown-up debate in the UK," she told the Guardian newspaper.
Lunde said her views reflected those of the governing party.
"You just expect us to give you an invitation rather than consider whether Norway would want to give you such an invitation. It might be in your interest to use our agreement, but it would not be in our interest."
The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
The organization operates in parallel with the EU and all four members participate in the European single market and are part of the Schengen Area, but are not party to the bloc's customs union.
Lunde said the countries in EFTA "have to agree on all the regulations coming from the EU, so if one country vetoes something we all have to veto, which means that if the UK enters the Efta platform and starts to veto regulations that we want, this will affect not just the UK but also us as well"
"Part of the success we have had with this EEA agreement is for the last 25 years is that we do accept the rules and regulations that do come out of the EU, mostly because it is in our interest," she said.
"If, as I understand, UK politicians do not want to be ruled by regulations coming from other countries, why would they accept a country with 38,000 citizens like Liechtenstein being able to veto regulations that the UK wants. That would be the reality."
The rejection is a blow to a cross-party group led by the Tory MP Nick Boles, with private cabinet support, that is looking for a plan B if, as expected, MPs reject Prime Minister Theresa May's deal next Tuesday.
May would be extremely unlikely to push personally for the Norway option as it allows freedom of movement and her obsession with cutting immigration would make it impossible to endorse it.
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