David Davis
David Davis said the EU was using time to pressure Britain into making concessions over the so-called divorce bill Getty

The Brexit Secretary has revealed that the government has not carried out any impact assessments on how leaving the EU will affect the UK.

Speaking to the Brexit committee in parliament, the David Davis said that "there's no sort of systematic impact assessment".

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He added that there was "sectoral analysis" of various industries in the UK, but no forecasting had been carried out.

It comes amid a long-running row over the studies the government has allegedly completed.

Speaking about the sectoral analysis that had been carried out, Davis said that he was handed two chapters of an 850-page report, but didn't read them.

His comments were seized upon by Labour MPs, who criticised the government for their handling of Brexit.

Seema Malhotra, who sits on the Brexit select committee, tweeted: "David Davis has just admitted that the Government have not conducted a single economic impact assessments on the impact to Brexit to our economy. Staggeringly. A dereliction of duty. #BrexitShambles."

The SNP MP Joanna Cherry, also on the committee, suggested that Davis had misled parliament over the existence of the impact assessments, describing the situation as "pretty serious".

Davis appeared to be in an agitated mood at times, on several times saying that he was "tight for time".

Saying that he was "late" for his next appointment, Conservative MP Jacob-Rees Mogg reminded the secretary of state that Commons Speaker John Bercow had told the House that "nothing was more important" than for Davis to provide evidence to the committee.

Rounding off the session, the chairman, Hilary Benn asked "did the government undertake an assessment of leaving the customs union before the cabinet took that decision?"

To which Davis said, "No".

Benn replied "Isn't that extraordinary?"

Davis also replied "no" to this, adding that the range of outcomes were "too wide."

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