Ministers have ‘good grip’ on no-deal plan

MINISTERS are looking at preparations for a “no deal” Brexit on a weekly basis, the head of the Civil Service has said.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood said the Government was “completely on it” in terms of planning for leaving the EU with no deal.

But he warned that quitting with no agreement on future trade relations would only be a success if other EU countries and businesses also prepare.

Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking a comprehensive free trade deal with the EU but has been at pains to say she is ready to walk away from negotiations, insisting “no deal is better than a bad deal”.

Appearing before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Sir Jeremy said: “The most important thing to understand about the no deal scenario is that a lot of the work that will determine whether or not it is a sort of smooth transition to no deal is work that would have to be done by other countries.

“The Port of Calais, for example –

we can get our ducks in a row entirely in Dover but if that isn’t the case in Calais, then that causes some problems... Similarly our private sector companies will have to do quite a lot of preparation and so on, so there are things external to government.

“On the things we can control ourselves, I would say that we were – I don’t want to sound overly confident about this – but we have got a very, very good grip on the issues... I don’t want to reveal all the vulnerabilities of our planning position, but we are completely on it.”