By Ben Kerrigan
Theresa May’s former deputy has called for a public debate on Brexit, after warning that the UK is in danger of adopting “faith-based” Brexit policies.
Damien Green said ministers are blindly ignoring economic forecasts that predict a hit to the British economy. And the former deputy has called for a public debate on Brexit, in light of a release of all economic forecasting of the UK withdrawal plans. An open debate is consistent with the practices of a democracy, he says.
Green was sacked as the first secretary of state in 2017 after admitting lying about the presence of pornographic images on his House of Commons computer.
An investigation by the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood concluded that Green had provided misleading comments that had fallen short of the seven principles of public life, one of which was honesty denials after a Sunday newspaper reported that porn had been found on his computer were “inaccurate and misleading”. He became the third minister to step down from the government after Michael Fallon and Priti Patel
His departure saddened May at the time who brought him on for extra support following the loss of her majority in the 2017 UK elections.The prime minister at the time said she was “extremely sad” about losing Green from government, adding that it was “with deep regret and enduring gratitude for the contribution you have made over many years that I asked you to resign from the government”
Heywood found Green had twice breached the ministerial code, because his misleading comments had fallen short of the “seven principles of public life”, one of which is honesty”. His intervention in the sharp divide caused by Brexit is quite ironic and will lead to stern frowns from those who will play down the opinions of a man sacked for dishonesty.
EVIDENCE
Speaking in a BBC interview to be broadcast at 8 pm this evening, he said:
“There’s a great problem of politicians who won’t accept evidence.
“We can all argue about economic forecasts and none of them are 100 percent accurate, but you have to some extent rely on them and if you reject evidence you don’t like, then you are likely to end up producing faith-based policies.
“There are politicians who would prefer not to have the evidence there.”
Green might be using the tension surrounding Brexit negotiations to bring some attention to himself. The basis of some of his issue is connected to Whitehall documents that recently predicted a worse economic state for the Uk regardless of whether it secures an EU trade deal. Green’s open stance on how the country should handle Brexit negotiations may threaten to deepen divisions in the Tory party which Boris Johnson last week tried to calm with his valentines speech, though it drew mixed responses. A crunch cabinet meeting later this week was designed to achieve further calm is underway