‘Secret’ Government documents reveal No Deal Brexit WILL trigger surge in supermarket prices and food shortages
A NO DEAL Brexit will trigger food shortages and surge in supermarket prices – ‘secret’ Government documents revealed yesterday.
In a “catastrophic” warning, officials said 1 in 10 food products would be directly affected by delays caused by chaos between Dover and Calais – with the biggest effect on fruit and veg.
They added that 200,000 exporters weren’t prepared for a No Deal Brexit, business faced £13 billion of extra customs bureaucracy and the Northern Ireland economy could suffer a huge economic shock.
The British economy overall would be up to 9 per cent smaller than expected in the mid-2030s, the briefing papers revealed.
It came as separate leaked documents from the Department for Health claimed a No Deal would put extra strain on adult social care.
Pro-EU MPs leapt on the report and demanded Theresa May take No Deal off the table for goods. The papers were released by the Department for Exiting the European Union after a Commons demand from ex-Tory Anna Soubry.
Speaking to The Sun last night she said: “It is unconscionable for a Conservative to support a No Deal. I now know why [Business Secretary] said a No Deal would be ruinous for the people of this country.”
Fellow Independent Group MP Chuka Umunna said the documents “paint a disastrous picture of the catastrophe” a No Deal would leave the country in.
He stormed: “In light of what she knows, it is utterly irresponsible for the Prime Minister to keep a No Deal on the table given the extreme damage it will do.”
Just hours earlier the PM had insisted in the Commons that the UK would “ultimately” make a success of a No Deal if that happened.
But the DeXeU papers reveal that with just weeks to go until March 29, thousands of businesses and individuals are unprepared.
It said only 40,000 of 240,000 UK firms that currently trade with the EU had so far filled out an Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number essential for completing customs documentation for imports.
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