May tells MPS of no-deal steps if vote is lost

THERESA MAY was yesterday accused of bluffing over her threats to leave the European Union without a deal as MPS said they did not believe her.

The Prime Minister insisted that contingency plans for leaving without a deal will have to be stepped up if MPS vote down her deal on Dec 11.

However, Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP and chairman of the home affairs select committee, said: “I don’t think you will do it.”

Mrs May appeared before the liaison committee, made up of all the MPS who head select committees, after the Bank of England published an analysis of the economic impacts of a disorderly Brexit which was so bleak it was labelled “Project Hysteria” by Brexiteers.

Mrs May said a series of “practical steps” would have to be taken if MPS were to vote down her deal. She said: “Obviously we have been doing nodeal planning as a Government. We have made certain information available to businesses.

“But at a point at which the House, if it were to do so, voted down the deal that has been agreed, given that the European Union has been clear that this is the deal that has been agreed and this is the deal that is on the table, then obviously decisions would have to be taken in relation to the action that would need to be taken to prepare.”

She said it would be impossible to hold another national vote before March 29 when Britain leaves the EU and that extending the Article 50 process would mean the end of her deal, as negotiators would have to start again.