Government spent £13 million in just two months on consultants to help with Brexit deal

A Brexit protester campaigning outside the Houses of Parliament. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire - Credit: PA

The government spent more than £13 million in just two months in their desperate attempts to convince MPs to vote for Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

According to the Sun, £12 4 million was spent by the cabinet office on external consultant fees, which involved drawing up alternative plans to the Irish border and preparing for a no-deal Brexit.

It is a whopping 221% increase on the total spend on consultancy services in the same three month period a year earlier.

Best for Britain found that the department spent £300,000 in December on communicating the plan to the public and then a further £400,000 in January, which would have involved using Google and social media networks.

The spending spree was a flop, as Theresa May failed to gain the support of the House of Commons, and the government appeared to u-turn on plans for a no-deal Brexit.


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Details of the money spent were only revealed because of the government’s own transparency rules.

Tonia Antoniazzi MP, a supporter of the Best for Britain, group said that ‘this is yet more clueless spending from the government.’

‘Anyone still arguing that Brexit isn’t already costing the country a pretty penny needs to take a look at the millions being spent on consultants.

‘But no amount of money can unpick the parliamentary knot this Prime Minister has tangled herself in. The only way to do that is by giving the public the final say on Brexit, so that the people can tell politicians what they want after three years of this mess.’