British prime ministerial contender Jeremy Hunt on Monday pledged billions of pounds to mitigate the effects of a possible no-deal Brexit, but the country’s Finance Minister dismissed the plans as unaffordable.
Mr. Hunt is vying with front-runner Boris Johnson to win the support of predominately pro-Brexit Conservative Party members, who will vote this month for Theresa May’s replacement as Prime Minister.
Mr. Hunt, the Foreign Minister, who has previously said leaving the European Union without a deal “would be a mistake we would regret for generations”, made on Monday his strongest commitment to back such a move by unveiling a 10-point plan.
“No-deal is obviously not my preferred destination. But if a withdrawal deal is simply not on the cards then the only way to fulfil the democratic mandate of the referendum is to leave without a deal, which is what we will do,” he said at the Policy Exchange think-tank event in London.
Mr. Hunt plans to raid the £26 billion “headroom” built up by a decade of budget tightening since the financial crisis.
But Finance Minister Philip Hammond who oversaw much of those cuts immediately dismissed the plan.
“The ‘fiscal firepower’ we have built up in case of a no-deal Brexit will only be available for extra spending if we leave with an orderly transition,” Mr. Hammond wrote on Twitter.
“If not, it will all be needed to plug the hole a no-deal Brexit will make in the public finances.”