DO A BREXIT DEAL .. OR FACE DOOMSDAY
Think tank warns of nuke plants shutdown, legal limbo and grounded flights if EU divorce talks fail
FLIGHTS could be grounded and Brits plunged into legal limbo if the UK crashes out of the EU without a Brexit deal, experts warn today.
The impact of Theresa May failing to strike a pact will be “widespread, damaging and pervasive”, according to a doomsday report by the think tank UK in a Changing Europe.
Environmental protections could be weakened, business contracts mired in chaos and clinical drugs trials derailed, the report says.
Likely economic consequences include a fresh battering for Sterling exchange rates, climbing inflation and falling wages.
The think tank’s director Professor Anand Menon said: “Our findings show a chaotic Brexit would, at least in the short term, spawn a political mess, a legal morass and an economic disaster.
“This report makes it clear ‘no deal’ is an outcome the British Government must strive to avoid.”
The 23-page study paints a bleak picture of leaving the EU without a deal, including the possibility of nuclear power stations going offline.
It added: “A no deal may mean the UK has no established safety procedures and systems for the operation of nuclear power plants.
“The UK’s nuclear power stations would be unable to operate, which could raise the risk of a move back to coal to stem the shortfall in energy production, with impacts on air quality and climate change goals, a huge expansion of fracking or a shortfall in energy production.”
Flights could be hit, particularly British-based airlines jetting between EU countries.
The report read: “UK airlines would lose the freedom to operate services between other EU member states, which they currently enjoy.
“Similarly, unless a deal is struck, the only services that airlines from other EU member states would be able to operate services to and from the UK would be from their home country only. In other words, a UK passenger could fly Ryanair to Dublin but not to Barcelona, Milan or Paris.”
The authors of the Cost of No Deal report admit they used a “significant amount of speculation”.
In a further blow to Brexiteers, the think tank warned that “almost any deal worth having will involve the UK surrendering some ‘control’”.
And the March 2019 deadline for sealing divorce and trade deals “seems massively optimistic”.
Labour MP Chuka Umunna MP, from the Open Britain campaign, said: “This should be required reading for the Brexit Secretary, the Prime Minister, and everyone who believes a Brexit with no deal would be in any way acceptable.
“It would in fact be nothing short of catastrophic.”
Yesterday, German politician Hans-Olaf Henkel, deputy head of the European parliament’s industry, research and energy committee, said the EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier wants to impose a bad Brexit deal on Britain.
Today, Brexit Secretary David Davis and Barnier hold a second round of negotiations.