Think tank warns of ‘negative’ impact

The impact of a chaotic Brexit “will be severe and overwhelmingly negative”, a think tank has warned.

A no deal scenario “remains a possible, albeit not likely”, outcome of the Brexit process, which “would have a huge impact across a whole range of both regions and sectors”, The UK In A Changing Europe argued.

Its report entitled Cost Of No Deal Revisited said that an outcome where the UK failed to sign a withdrawal agreement would result in economic and social “short-term disruption”.

It said: “The real impact of a chaotic Brexit relates not to the longer-term trading arrangements developed for the UK but, rather, to the short-term uncertainties associated with the disappearance without replacement of many of the rules underpinning the UK’S economic and regulatory structure.”

Effects would be felt, it added, in industry sectors from “agriculture to financial services; to areas which we take for granted as essential to the UK’S economy and society, such as air transport and drugs; and to our EU national colleagues, friends and family, and to our fellow citizens living elsewhere in Europe”.