Philip Hammond’s reluctance to talk about Brexit casts doubt over the government’s insistence that Brexit will be a success, warns Christabel Edwards

Often, it is what is not said that sends the loudest message, and one of the most bizarre aspects of Brexit since the very start, has been the apparent lack of enthusiasm from those who support the idea. From that very first press conference with Boris Johnson and Michael Gove the day after the vote, right through to the present, the air of excitement and anticipation you would expect from the advocates of such a momentous change, has been almost completely absent.

True to form then, that the chancellor of the exchequer, Phillip Hammond, failed to mention Brexit at all during his budget speech last week. I find this difficult to understand. Shouldn’t he be selling us an exciting vision of the future? It is certainly needed.

Most commentators agree that the decision to leave the European Union has huge implications for the economy of this country. In the nine months since the referendum, the stuttering recovery has been all but suffocated as growth has slowed. The weakened pound is causing widespread price rises, but the disappointingly small boost to exports has failed to offset falling demand at home.

At the same time, the economy suffers further stresses as the supply of migrant workers, both skilled, and unskilled, is drying up due to the uncertain status of foreign nationals post-Brexit. Inward investment, and the signing of longer-term contracts are in the doldrums for similar reasons. So shouldn’t the chancellor be taking action to reassure business that the implications of this self-inflicted economic earthquake are going to be addressed?

Of course, the financial contribution from the EU is about far more than just trading relationships and migration. Another action that Hammond should be looking to take right now is to begin to replace the shortfalls that will exist when we are no longer entitled to European funding.

Let us have a look around: There is the £3.1bn annually (2014) for agriculture and fisheries. Money used to ensure the economic viability of British farmers. That represents an average of about £17,000 per farmer, per year. What will they do when it does not arrive? Also included in that figure is money for rural development projects, like my local farm shop with its little EU plaque above the door. Funding for fisheries is much less, but still a significant amount of money that will be removed from UK plc.

EU regional development funds bring in a further £1.3bn for the least developed regions of the United Kingdom. This helps thousands of new businesses every year, and goes towards creating tens of thousands of worthwhile jobs. Where are the plans to replace it? Even the proposed national insurance changes have, it seems, been quickly dropped.

Research, education and innovation funding nets a further £800m for projects through the Horizon2020 programme. From this, the UK is the second highest recipient of funds after Germany with about 14 per cent of the total being signed over to UK institutions. Much of this lays the foundation for the innovation that underpins our high-tech industries.

Yet more EU money goes into a variety of diverse projects covering conservation, manufacturing, green technology, clean energy investment, medical research and much more. These are all projects designed to produce growth and jobs. Growth and jobs that risk being lost when the money is withdrawn. If the UK is to leave the EU, and these funding streams are to be removed in two years’ time, surely now is the time to do the legwork of setting up replacement agencies and programmes.

Assuming the government is seriously interested in making a success of Brexit, shouldn’t the chancellor be going out of his way to provide reassurance to panicking farmers and academics, who fear for their jobs and livelihoods when their funding streams are cut? You would think.

Elephant in the room memes have been all over social media since budget day, and rightly. If the government intends to trigger article 50 before the end of the month, it has got two years until the chickens come home to roost. That is not long. You would think there would be an air of excited activity as they prepare for the bright new post-Brexit world. But not a bit of it. So what is going on?

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Christabel Edwards is a Labour party activist. She tweets at @Christabel321

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