Brexit Army ready to roll
Food & fuel delivery plan for ‘no-deal’
THE Army may be drafted in to deliver emergency food, fuel and medicine under a no-deal Brexit.
The military would step in if blockages at ports cause shortages.
Blueprints that are usually meant for public emergencies have reportedly been included as part of nodeal planning.
Helicopters and Army trucks are earmarked to take medicine to vulnerable patients.
A Ministry of Defence source has been quoted as saying “no formal request” to supply aid had been received, adding the department has “a blueprint for us supporting civilian authorities that can be dusted off ”.
But Labour peer Lord Adonis told the Mirror: “Calling the Army in is desperate. Brexit extremists see this as their Dunkirk moment where the nation pulls together in... adversity.
“In reality, these are self-inflicted wounds that put our most vulnerable at risk.”
A Tory minister reportedly said: “There is a lot of... contingency plan- ning around the prospect of no-deal. That’s not frightening the horses, that’s just being realistic.” Supermarkets have told suppliers to stockpile customers’ favourite tea and coffee.
And the NHS said it would stockpile drugs brought in from outside the EU if Theresa May failed to strike an agreement with Brussels.
It has also emerged treatment of thousands of cancer patients may be delayed if there is no deal, because deliveries of radioactive medicines, some which only work for days after being created, are at risk of being held up if the UK crashes out of the EU.
Meanwhile, Amber Rudd, the Tories’ former Home Secretary, has said “anyone who claims Brexit will be easy is being as cavalier” as a climate change denier. The UK is due to leave the EU in March.