UK will "hopefully" leave European Union by the end of October, says Minister and Yorkshire MP Rishi Sunak

The recruitment of extra border officials has been speeded up in preparation for leaving the EU "hopefully by the end of October", the Government has said.
Richmond MP Rishi Sunak, recently appointed as Chief Secretary to the TreasuryRichmond MP Rishi Sunak, recently appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Richmond MP Rishi Sunak, recently appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak, MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire, today defended increased spending on preparing for a potential no-deal Brexit, saying the Government's "clear desire" is for the UK to leave the EU by October 31.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Sunak said: "A lot of the money we are spending is going to go on things that would need to spend anyway because we are leaving the European Union. That means we're going to be leaving the single market and the customs union, so of course that does mean changes to how we trade with Europe."

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He added: "At some point we will be leaving the European Union - hopefully by the end of October is our clear desire - so we would at some point have to do that campaign to get traders ready for the changes they'll have to do."

Richmond MP Rishi Sunak, recently appointed as Chief Secretary to the TreasuryRichmond MP Rishi Sunak, recently appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Richmond MP Rishi Sunak, recently appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury
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Mr Sunak said 250 new Border Force officials "will be on the front line" at the end of October, and that a further 250 would join them over the following months.

"We have already been investing in preparing our borders," he said. "We had £2.1 billion allocated for Brexit preparedness in the last financial year, and an additional £2.1 billion this year. This comes on top of that. Part of that has already gone on our borders and HMRC.

"We have already got 500 new Border Force officials working. The 500 extra that we've announced today, recruitment is already in process.

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"The procedures have already been centralised, they have been sped up, and 250 of those will be on the front line at the end of October, with a further 250 to come over the coming months."

Asked how many extra staff are actually in place now, Mr Sunak said: "I don't have the exact HMRC staffing arrangements in front of me. What I can tell you is the money from the Treasury has been allocated and deployed to all those departments."

He added: "We don't control what the French would do. I think some of the signs we're seeing are reasonably positive. The French have announced tens of millions of pounds of investment themselves in Calais and in hiring more border inspectors on their end."

Mr Sunak said spending the additional £2 billion today is important to make the UK "as prepared as possible" to "minimise disruption".

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"We will have a fiscal event in the autumn because we will need to have a Spending Review, and the Spending Review is what sets out all departments' spending plans."

He added: "We would like to give people certainty as soon as possible. We are working, both the Chancellor and me, we've been in these jobs a few days, we're working very hard on figuring out the exact timing of that and, hopefully, we'll have something to say on that reasonably soon."

By the time he appeared on Sky News later, Mr Sunak had apparently been reminded of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's "do or die" commitment to the October 31 date.

He said: "What we are very clear about is that we want to leave the European Union by the end of October, no ifs, no buts.

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"Of course we would like to be able to do a renegotiated deal with our European friends and allies that removes the undemocratic backstop, but if they are not willing to have those conversations in a spirit of friendship and a constructive attitude then it's right and responsible that we prepare properly for leaving without a deal."