Authorities in Northern Ireland plan to spend three-quarters of a million pounds reassuring citizens that everything will be OK if there’s a no-deal Brexit.
An emergency contract tender put out by the civil service in Belfast calls for “an advertising and public information campaign” specific to the area. It notes that the U.K. government has its own information drive, but that a separate publicity blitz will be required for Northern Ireland.
Boris Johnson, who on Tuesday is expected to become Britain’s next prime minister, has vowed to take the U.K. out of the EU “do or die” by the end of October.
The value of the contract, which was spotted by public contracting experts Tussell and is expected to last for 19 months from September, is £750,000.
It was listed on the EU’s contracts website on July 17 and marked for an “accelerated process” because of the urgency of the issue. Firms hoping to bid for the work will have to get their applications in by August 9.
“The campaign will aim to raise awareness of what EU exit means for Northern Ireland; Target key stakeholders with relevant information; and where possible, provide reassurance to all citizens,” the advert reads.
It adds: “The Contracting Authority are proceeding with a reduced time limit for this tender competition due to the urgency and nature of this requirement.”
Former Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Smith, speaking on behalf of the anti-Brexit People’s Vote campaign, said Northern Ireland would “bear the brunt” of a “disastrous” no-deal Brexit.
“People in Northern Ireland did not back Brexit, never mind no deal, and no executive is functioning, yet decisions are being made to spend money on promoting no deal as a viable option,” the Labour MP said. “It’s little better than a disgraceful assault on democracy.”
He added: “The progress that has been made in Northern Ireland over the last 20 years must not be thrown away because 160,000 Conservative Party members [who will pick the next prime minister], almost none of whom live in Northern Ireland, want to impose the most extreme form of Brexit on everyone else.”
The Executive Office of Northern Ireland, a government department, said in a statement that it had launched “a procurement process, as part of its contingency arrangements, to appoint a contractor to deliver an advertising and public information campaign, to support communication activity across the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS), in the event of the UK leaving the EU without an agreed EU Exit deal.
“The campaign will raise awareness of what people in Northern Ireland will need to consider if the UK leaves the EU without a deal and target key stakeholders with relevant and timely information,” it said.