Billions have been thrown away in a bid to paper over the Tories' Brexit mess

Responding to a National Audit Office (NAO) report which found that by 31 January 2020 departments had spent at least £4.4 billion of the £6.3 billion allocated for Brexit preparations, Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: "Billions of pounds have been thrown away in a bid to paper over the Tories' Brexit mess. The public have a right to know where it is all going. In the face of major floods and the covid-19 threat, we have to ask if the Government knows its own spending priorities. "Thanks to the Prime Minister's self-imposed and self-defeating deadline we are facing a crunch, with serious challenges in multiple directions. Our country deserves better leadership than this. “Not only must a no-deal Brexit be taken off the table, but Ministers in charge of Brexit preparations must come clean on what they have been doing with billions of pounds of public money."