British PM Hopeful Hunt Unveils No-Deal Brexit Plans

British prime ministerial contender Jeremy Hunt on Monday pledged billions of pounds to mitigate the effects of a possible no-deal Brexit, but the country’s finance minister dismissed the plans as unaffordable.

Hunt is vying with frontrunner Boris Johnson to win the support of predominately pro-Brexit Conservative Party members, who will vote this month for Theresa May’s replacement as prime minister.

Hunt, the foreign minister, who has previously said leaving the European Union without a deal “would be a mistake we would regret for generations”, made on Monday his strongest commitment to back such a move by unveiling a 10-point plan.

“No-deal is obviously not my preferred destination. But if a withdrawal deal is simply not on the cards then the only way to fulfil the democratic mandate of the referendum is to leave without a deal, which is what we will do,” he said at the Policy Exchange think-tank event in London.

His plan would cancel all leave in government departments in preparation for a no-deal exit from the EU, and slash corporate tax rates.

The government would also channel £6 billion ($7.6 billion, 6.7 billion euros) to industries most threatened by a no-deal Brexit.

“We spent just over £1 trillion bailing out the banks after the financial crisis, so if we did it for the bankers then why wouldn’t we do what is needed for our fishermen and our farmers?”, he said.

Hunt plans to raid the £26 billion “headroom” built up by a decade of budget tightening since the financial crisis.