‘We must be afraid’ – Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar warns of the absence of a Brexit deal – as it happened | Policy

If a portion of that is spent on things we only need when there is no deal, and we are not done without a deal, then of course the money is wasted. But I think we will likely see it, and the government will see it as a form of insurance policy. If there is no need at the end, then he is not lost, because at least he has insured us to some extent against what might happen.

The important thing is, in the context of what will be the overall fiscal impact from a no-deal Brexit, and it will be very negative, as the Office of Budget Responsibility said only two weeks ago, in fact a few weeks. A billion is a little compared to the tens of billions we would otherwise lose as a result of a smaller economy.