Brexit ‘catastrophe’ expected

A no-deal Brexit could quickly overwhelm Whitehall, the British government has admitted in papers leaked to The Times.

A document drawn up as part of a contingency plan, codenamed Operation Yellowhammer, also says the government might have to go on an emergency aroundthe-clock footing for months after a hard Brexit.

The immediate priorities in the event of no deal will be ‘‘welfare, health, transport and security of UK citizens at home and abroad, and the economic stability of the UK’’, the document says.

It is a 37-page guide to working in the Department for Transport 24/7 operations centre. ‘‘The scale of the operation is potentially enormous. If there is no deal, the impacts could be felt [and] could fall across every transport mode [and possibly each sector within wider government], and could grow exponentially as . . the capabilities of responders at all levels decrease or become overwhelmed,’’ it warns.

The government is worried about consequences it cannot foresee, the guide adds. ‘‘Critically, it has to be understood that . . . there will be issues of unanticipated impacts that arise, or impacts which had not been fully understood.’’

There will be a series of 24/7 operation centres in the event of no deal, which will report to the Cabinet Office. The centres will go live from March 18 after a practice run on February 27 or 28.

The document says the Department for Transport will not be able to cope with more than two emergencies at once.

Labour MP Owen Smith said: ‘‘This report lays out in brutal detail the impact of a no-deal Brexit: it’s an economic catastrophe, and the prime minister must rule it out as an option. It would damage our country for generations.’’

Prime Minister Theresa May is also being warned by Greg Clark, the business secretary, that she must secure approval for her Brexit deal in the next fortnight or millions of pounds worth of British exports may be stuck in ‘‘limbo-land’’.

Ships going to Asia take six weeks to arrive and must label their consignments before they leave, so at present they will be travelling under European Union free trade agreements. If the United Kingdom leaves the EU without a deal, those agreements will fall, and it is unclear what the status of the goods will be. Businesses might suddenly be liable for huge tariffs, or find them in quarantine for weeks.

Clark said this meant that a deal had to be agreed within two weeks, not by March 29, to avoid disaster. – The Times