Philip Hammond has demanded an official apology from Boris Johnson after Number 10 sought to blame disgruntled ministers for the leak of no-deal documents.
The former chancellor said the Operation Yellowhammer document, which set out in stark terms the potential impact of a no-deal Brexit, was dated August 2019 – after Mr Johnson had taken office.
Mr Hammond wrote that according to the media, a Number 10 source had briefed the dossier was “deliberately leaked by a former minister in an attempt to influence discussions with EU leaders”.
The documents, obtained by the Sunday Times, indicated the UK will be hit with a three-month “meltdown” at its ports, a hard Irish border and shortages of food and medicine after it leaves the EU without a deal.
Mr Hammond said: “The clear implication was that a minister in the last government has retained, and then leaked, a copy of this document. The media has speculated accordingly on the source of this document.”
READ MORE: Letters: The Scottish National Party is truly internationalist by nature
But the former chancellor added: “It has now become apparent that the leaked document was, in fact, dated August 2019 and would not, therefore, have been available to any former minister who is not serving in the current administration.
“Accordingly, I am writing on behalf of all former ministers in the last administration to ask you to withdraw these allegations which question our integrity, acknowledge that no former minister could have leaked this document, and apologise for the misleading briefing from No. 10.”
A Downing Street source said: “I’m sure the Prime Minister will reply in due course.
“I’m sure he will be interested to learn that Philip Hammond represents all former ministers.”
READ MORE: Scottish Government looks to secure cross-party opposition to no-deal Brexit
The source disputed the suggestion that it had been drawn up under Mr Johnson’s premiership.
“Various briefings made clear that the Yellowhammer document was prepared for the previous administration and presented at the first meeting of the XO (Exit Operations committee) and knocked back by ministers at the time,” said the source.
“It doesn’t reflect the changes made by the Government in terms of preparing for no-deal.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel