Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

Police chiefs have voiced fears that inflammatory rhetoric from politicians and activists could fuel Brexit tensions as they revealed they have amassed their biggest ever peacetime reserve of 10,000 officers to deal with potential unrest in the event of no deal.

The chair of the National Police Chiefs Council, Martin Hewitt, warned “prominent individuals” involved in the protracted Brexit debate should avoid inciting anger given the “febrile” and “emotive” atmosphere, amid concerns of violence and disorder.

Hewitt said: “This is highly emotive ... I think there is a responsibility on those individuals that have a platform, and have a voice, to communicate in a way that is temperate and is not in any way going to inflame people’s views or cause any actions out of there.

“I think we are in an incredibly febrile atmosphere. There is a lot of angry talk that you can pick up if you look across social media.”

He said it was “incumbent on anybody in a position of responsibility and who has a voice to just think carefully about the way they express their views” to avoid inciting unwanted behaviour.

The NPCC lead for Brexit planning, chief constable Charlie Hall, said at least 10,000 officers trained in quelling disorder were ready for deployment across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and trained in tactics to tackle looting in the event of shortages and violence if tensions spill over.

That was a greater contingent of officers, Hall said, than deployed to reinforce local forces during the 2011 riots across England, the worst since the end of the second world war.

Ministers warned over planes and troops in no-deal Brexit
Cabinet secretary Sir Mark Sedwill says emergency contingency plans are needed

Cabinet ministers were told they must agree emergency contingency plans to keep planes flying to North America and Australia, as well as keeping British troops legally in Bosnia, in case the EU forces a no-deal exit.

Before their marathon cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the cabinet secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, briefed ministers that major security and commercial decisions would need to be completed if Brussels rejected Theresa May’s plan to ask for a short extension to article 50.

A cabinet source said the decisions were likely to result in large costs to the taxpayer and that decisions would also need to be taken on direct rule in Northern Ireland and payment of the UK’s £39bn divorce bill to the EU.

Among the decisions outlined in a 14-page document handed to ministers in Downing Street were:

• New agreements would be required for air services with Canada, the US and Australia.
• British troops in Bosnia currently serving as part of an EU force would need to be placed under Nato command.
• Negotiations would need to be urgently completed on a future fisheries agreement so that EU fishing boats could be expelled from British waters.

Sedwill, the UK’s highest-ranking civil servant, is said to have warned cabinet ministers that some of the biggest decisions were likely to be very difficult to reverse, because they involved international agreements.

The warnings from Sedwill, who is also May’s national security adviser, follow an earlier letter he wrote to ministers warning that no deal would lead to food price rises and a reduction in security capacity.

British civil servants have been offered mental health support to ease the stress of preparing for a no-deal Brexit, it has emerged.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) employed a company with a “cognitive behavioural counselling approach” to provide a wellbeing service for three months until January this year.

It coincided with the recruitment of about 1,300 staff as Defra bolstered its “emergency preparedness in case of a no-deal scenario”, with the department responsible for food and water, waste strategies and animal movements – meaning it has one of the largest no-deal Brexit workloads.

A Defra spokesperson said: “The health, safety and wellbeing of our staff is always a priority for Defra and we have a range of services on offer to support staff’s mental health. This short-term contract expired at the end of January and bolstered our own wellbeing services for two months while we made changes to our existing employee support.”

It is understood the service was then brought in-house once the department made changes to its support programmes and increased capacity.

A description of the contract read: “Onsite wellbeing counselling for a short period during EU exit preparations in London, Bristol and York. Primarily for those working in EU exit hubs during emergency preparedness in case of a no-deal scenario.”

The Gloucester-based employee assistance company Care First was paid £40,000 to provide the support services to Defra staff in London, York and Bristol. The contract was awarded on 30 November last year, although it began on 1 November.
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The European parliament has voted to confirm UK citizens will continue to benefit from visa-free travel to member states after a no-deal Brexit.

MEPs voted 502 votes to 81 in favour of the concession

The punishment would have been if they had not opted for this—which was threatened.