David Davis asked to appear before committee after he 'handed over a single paper copy' of redacted 850-page Brexit report
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Loading... - Monike Theodote
- 28 Nov 2020
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Tory minister David Davis handed over a long-awaited dossier outlining the economic impact of Brexit in a single paper copy yesterday.
The Brexit Secretary was under orders to provide the analysis of how leaving the EU would affect 58 sectors of the economy to a parliamentary committee by today.
This morning members of the Brexit committee met in private to decide what to do with the reports which have been heavily redacted.
They have asked the secretary of state to appear before the committee to explain the process behind the Department’s actions.
In his letter handing over the documents Mr Davis explained that elements of the reports had been redacted because he said he had “received no assurances from the Committee regarding how any information passed will be used”.
He said because of that he felt it was necessary to censor the report because “delivering a successful outcome to our EU exit negotiations for the whole country requires keeping some information confidential for the purposes of the negotiations”.”
Today the committee confirmed it was making arrangements for its members to read the reports and that their chair Hilary Benn would be writing to the secretary of state and that would be published on their website.
Yesterday officials at the Department for Exiting the European Union insisted they had complied with the order from Commons Speaker John Bercow.
But any publication of the report will be made much more difficult by Mr Davis, having provided the committee with just one hard copy of the huge document.
The Mirror understands the document was kept in a locked safe overnight.
Davis already faces fury from MPs after refusing to hand over some of the information.
He was accused of keeping the "public in the dark" after it emerged the analyses - given to the Brexit Committee just a day before a deadline - had been heavily edited.
Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer said his Tory counterpart could be found in contempt of Parliament.
The entire reports are still secret, and the committee is set to meet tomorrow morning to decide what to do next.
The committee could release the edited reports it's been given to the public, or demand more from the government, or both.
Mr Davis insisted he had fulfilled his obligations by sending over the information, broken down into 38 separate reports.
But he also admitted he had removed anything that was commercially sensitive, market sensitive or even "negotiation sensitive" - a huge range of information.
Seema Malhotra, a Labour MP and member of the committee, said publishing material that had been edited was “against the spirit and the letter of parliament’s motion”.
She said: “The Select Committee must be given the full analyses which were completed and nothing less.
"We cannot and should not be short-changed. This will not be in the national interest. The public and Parliament must no longer be kept in the dark.”
Mr Davis was forced to send over the information after Labour used an arcane parliamentary procedure to win a vote in the House of Commons on publishing the reports which the speaker said was binding.
In his letter handing over the documents Mr Davis explained that elements of the reports had been redacted because he had “received no assurances from the Committee regarding how any information passed will be used”.
Sir Keir said: "Parliament was very clear in its instruction to ministers. All 58 impact assessments should have been shared with the select committee in full, without redaction and unedited.
“If the Government has failed to comply with this ruling then we will not hesitate in raising this matter with the Speaker.”
