Theresa May's Government is ‘making up Brexit strategy as it goes along'

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Theresa May and her Cabinet ministers are pursuing a "make it up as they go along" strategy for Britain’s exit from the European Union, according to John McDonnell.

The comments from the Shadow Chancellor follow the disclosure by the Business Secretary Greg Clark, on television, that the Government had told the Japanese car giant Nissan it would seek a tariff-free deal with the European Union for the car sector in Britain.

Downing Street had been under intense pressure to reveal the terms of its agreement with Nissan following the company’s announcement last week it would continue to invest in Britain after Brexit and build its next-generation Qashaqi X-Trail SUV model in Sunderland.

But while the Shadow Chancellor welcomed the decision by Nissan, he told The Independent that the “worrying” aspect of the Government’s approach “is that we are seeing a make it up as they go along strategy delivered in the TV studios and not debated in Parliament”.

“This means that it leaves more questions than answers and puts the UK economy in a position of being hostage to fortune rather than deciding its own destiny,” he added.

“It also means workers will be worrying this Christmas about their futures when they don’t have to be if the Government was straight with them. It’s time the Tories simply admit they had no plan for Brexit and consult others so we can finally get clarity rather than confusion from the Government.”

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband added on Twitter: "Government says Nissan must know its Brexit plan (fine) but Parliament can't know or vote on it due to secrecy. Totally unsustainable position."

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Mr Clark said: “What I said was that our objective would be to ensure that we would have continued access to the markets in Europe - and vice versa - without tariffs and without bureaucratic impediments and that is how we will approach those negotiations.

"For the continental European car manufacturers, they export a lot to us, we export a lot to them, and components go backwards and forwards. If you conduct the negotiations in a serious, constructive and civilised way there is a lot in common that we can establish.

"I was able to reassure Nissan - and other manufacturers - that that is the way we are going to approach it."

However, Mr Clark did not elaborate on how he intends to retain a free trade relationship, which bares similarities to the single market – especially as the Prime Minister is aiming to drastically reduce immigration levels.

Following the Business Secretary’s interview Labour, however, continued to question whether there was a "financial element" to the agreement with the company following speculation of a “sweetheart deal”

Appearing moments after Mr Clark on ITV’s Peston on Sunday Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit Secretary, attacked the Government’s lack of transparency and demanded the correspondence between the Business Secretary and the Japanese car company to be made publicly available.

But when told about Mr Clark’s announce, he appeared irritated, adding: “To learn of this in an interview this morning is the wrong way to prepare for these negotiations.”

Mr Starmer added that he intended to seek an urgent question in the Commons on Monday to try and compel ministers to reveal any guarantees they may have given to the car manufacturer.

“They say no money is changing hands… I don’t know. We need to know and I’m going to try and raise this in Parliament tomorrow because something has been said.”