Plan issued to forestall chaos of a no-deal Brexit

LONDON — The British government issued its first contingency plans Thursday for leaving the European Union without an agreement, seeking to prepare the public for possible disruptions without spreading alarm that could undermine support for the entire undertaking.

The government emphasized that it hoped and expected to hammer out a deal with the European Union. But in a series of technical documents, it warned that, without an agreement, importers and exporters could face significant new bureaucratic hurdles, that credit or debit card payments in continental Europe could cost more, and that British citizens living in the bloc could lose access to banking and pension services.

Even minutiae like the design of cigarette packs would be affected, the government said.

Dominic Raab, secretary of state for Brexit, is treading a diplomatic and political tightrope in issuing the warnings. To increase Britain’s negotiating hand, he wants to show that it is ready to walk away from crucial Brexit talks with the EU this year if necessary.

But in trying to prove to his European interlocutors that Britain is prepared for all eventualities, Raab knows he risks frightening the British public and weakening faith in the Brexit project that he supports.

A no-deal Brexit “is not what we want, it is not what we expect, but we must be ready,” Raab told an audience in central London. But the ramifications of a breakdown in talks were clear from the scope of the first batch of his documents on planning for an absence of a deal: They included financial services, the nuclear industry, blood and medical products, and exports of goods that could be used for torture.

The opposition Labor Party dismissed the documents as meaningless exercises intended to cover up the government’s failures and to obscure the true disaster of a no-deal Brexit.

“Dominic Raab’s speech exposes the reality that this government is simply not prepared for a no-deal scenario,” said Keir Starmer, who represents the opposition on Brexit matters.

“The speech was thin on detail, thin on substance and provided no answers to how ministers intend to mitigate the serious consequences of leaving the EU without an agreement,” Starmer said in a statement.

With Britain scheduled to quit the EU at the end of March, talks remain deadlocked. If there is a breakthrough this year, Britain would enter a transition period during which little would change until the end of 2020.

The worry is that the negotiations will fail and lead to a sudden change in trading rules.