Tuesday Brexit News Roundup

Brussels has responded to financial industry calls for continued access to London’s capital markets by providing reassurance that EU groups will temporarily be able to use crucial derivatives clearing services in the UK even after a no-deal Brexit. FT The commitment by Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission vice-president, follows months of warnings by European bankers that EU companies otherwise face hefty rises in trading costs — or will be unable to hedge their market exposures.

The Brexit upside is just around the corner, Chancellor Philip Hammond said Monday — as long as the divorce is a smooth one. Politico  In a thinly veiled appeal to restive Conservative MPs to get behind Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit strategy, Hammond used his final annual budget announcement before the U.K. leaves the European Union to say that securing a deal with Brussels would mean more money for government spending. 

Britain will enjoy a “double deal dividend” from striking a Brexit agreement, Philip Hammond said as he announced extra funding to prepare the UK for its departure from the European Union.  The Telegraph The Chancellor said Britain’s economy would be strengthened by the “end of uncertainty” a deal would bring while an agreement would also free up money currently set aside to smooth a disorderly divorce.

A no-deal Brexit could mean cancelled NHS operations, delays in diagnoses and long-term pressure on staffing numbers, private letters and briefing notes seen by the Guardian reveal. The set of 30 documents released under freedom of information requests provide a detailed portrait of contingency planning for Brexit in NHS Scotland and Wales.

European Finance Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said a Brexit deal is “undoubtedly the most probable outcome” of the negotiations on a withdrawal agreement between the EU and the U.K. Politico “Yes, a deal is still possible and I would even say that it is undoubtedly the most probable outcome because 90 percent of the path which leads us to a deal has been done,” he told French TV channel Public Sénat early Monday.