Britain would grow more food after a no deal Brexit to stop supermarket prices soaring, the Transport Secretary claimed today.
Chris Grayling dismissed warnings from Sainsbury’s that quitting the EU without a trade deal would see prices spike by 22 per cent.
Britain imports huge amounts of fruit and veg from sunny regions of southern Europe – all of which could become subject to eye-watering tariffs with no free trade deal.
Labour mocked Mr Grayling, pointing out British farmers already work ‘incredibly hard’ and could not dramatically increase production with little warning.
Mr Grayling’s interview was an attempt to draw a line under weeks of bitter Cabinet infighting over Brexit.
He said ministers disagreed because there ‘not clones’ but insisted there was a ‘collaborative’ approach at the heart of government.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling (pictured on the Marr show today) denied the Chancellor faced the sack over Brexit but used a TV interview to dismiss the suggestion planes could be grounded
In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr, Mr Grayling said that if there was no deal, British food producers would grow more and ensure prices did not rise.
He told Marr: ‘It would mean that producers, supermarkets, bought more at home, that British farmers produced more, that they bought more from around the world.
‘And it would damage French producers and continental producers.’
Told Sainsbury’s forecast a 22 per cent price rise, Mr Grayling said: ‘What we will do is grow more here and we’ll buy more from around the world.
‘But of course that will mean bad news for continental farmers, and that’s why it won’t happen. Because it’s actually in their interest to reach a deal.’
Jenny Chapman, Labour’s shadow Brexit minister, said: ‘This is yet another example of the Tories’ chaotic approach to the Brexit negotiations.’
She added: ‘Rather than planning for no deal, ministers appear to be telling us to dig for no deal.
‘British farmers already work incredibly hard and to suggest that they could simply grow more food is ridiculous.’
Mr Grayling denied the Chancellor faced the sack over Brexit but used his TV interview to dismiss the suggestion planes could be grounded.
Philip Hammond suggested last week it was possible planes could be grounded after a no-deal Brexit – prompting ridicule from Brexit supporters.
Britain imports huge amounts of fruit and veg from sunny regions of southern Europe – all of which could become subject to eye-watering tariffs with no free trade deal (file image of an English farm in Salisbury)
The Transport Secretary insisted today people were safe to book their holidays because ‘planes will carry on flying’.
In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr, Mr Grayling insisted: ‘The Chancellor and I and the whole Cabinet are united on wanting the best possible deal for Britain.’
He added: ‘I sit round the Cabinet table, the Sunday papers add two and two together and make sixteen.
‘There is a collaborative relationship round the Cabinet. Of course we’re not clones, we have debates and discussions.’
Asked if people should plan and book holidays for the time after Brexit, Mr Grayling insisted: ‘Flights will carry on. Most of the world, planes fly without open skies agreements.
‘There’s nobody around – you know, talk to Willy Walsh, Chief Executive of British Airways, of International Airlines Group, of which British Airways is the parent company, he’ll say to you the planes will carry on flying.
‘Easyjet will tell you the planes will carry on flying.’
The Chancellor (pictured in Washington on Friday) has been mired in calls for his resignation this over his ‘Eeyore’ approach to Brexi
He added: ‘People will be able to carry on booking their holidays.
‘Does anybody seriously think the Spanish government, which would see hotel bookings collapse in 2019, is going to intervene to stop the planes flying? Of course they’re not.’
The Chancellor has been mired in calls for his resignation this over his ‘Eeyore’ approach to Brexit.
At a high-profile appearance at the Treasury committee on Wednesday, he said it was ‘theoretically conceivable that in a no-deal scenario there will be no air traffic moving between UK and EU’ on March 30, 2019.
But he insisted that ‘mutual self interest’ meant it was highly unlikely even if there is not a full deal between Britain and the EU in place.
The Chancellor was then humiliated on Friday after he was forced to apologise for branding the EU ‘the enemy’.
Mr Grayling insisted today people were safe to book their holidays because ‘planes will carry on flying’ in defiance of Mr Hammond’s claim they could be grounded (file image of Heathrow)
In other remarks, Mr Grayling also said people and good would continue to freely move across the Irish border, insisting the common travel area established in 1923 would continue.
He said: ‘If you’re talking about flows of trade, there is already, for example, a hard border between Norway and Sweden, but actually trucks don’t stop at the border.
‘They move across freely because in today’s world, as we set out in one of our position papers on the Irish border, you can manage trade across borders freely electronically without creating the kind of hard border that people imagine.’