Food, med shortages seen in no-deal Brexit
The U.K. could face “significant” shortages of food, medicine and fresh water if newly installed Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes good on his promise to pull out of the European Union by Oct. 31 and a new trade deal is not yet in place, a government study says.
A confidential report titled Operation Yellowhammer was published by London’s Sunday Times indicating great concern from the country’s Cabinet Office that 75% of imported drugs could be “vulnerable to severe delays” due to British trucks not having enough time to comply with French customs regulations, which is necessary to ship medicine across the English Channel.
The report also indicates that Brits who supported Brexit by the widest margins could be among the first to feel its negative impact. An inability to bring necessary supplies into the U.K. could limit options “and increase the price, which will affect vulnerable groups,” cabinet officials warn.
British voters who supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum that made it a reality skewed lower-income and less educated.
Cabinet officer Michael Gove, responsible for making preparations to move forward if no deal is reached with the EU by Oct. 31, said Operation Yellowhammer’s findings represent a worst-case scenario and that “significant steps” have been taken handle the dissolution of the current deal.
An anonymous cabinet source told The Sunday Times that Operation Yellowhammer’s findings forecast what is likely to happen and not a “worst-case” scenario.
Just under 52% of U.K. voters opted to leave the European Union in the June 2016 vote that called for the process to be completed by March 29, 2019.
The deadline was extended until the end of October.
Johnson took over as prime minister July 23 after his predecessor, Theresa May, was unable to execute an exit plan.