Nuclear power station warning

Nuclear power stations would grind to a halt and planes would be grounded if Britain left the European Union immediately with no deal, a Tory MP has warned.

Antoinette Sandbach said there would be “massive disruption” to businesses, airlines and nuclear safety if the government walked away from the Article 50 negotiations.

Her comments came as MPS debated a petition calling for the UK to leave the EU immediately.

Ms Sandbach, MP for Eddisbury, said: “We must separate the two different no deal concepts: the idea of reaching no deal after the negotiations – in other words a deal to have no deal – would be very different to the no deal envisaged by this petition. Just walking away would see massive disruption to our businesses, our airlines and our nuclear safety and industry. We risk planes being grounded and nuclear power stations grinding to a halt if basic agreements are not in place.

“The economic impact would be significant...tariffs on goods and services would be imposed and we would need to re-establish our own schedules at the WTO (World Trade Organisation) before we could even begin to set the agenda.”