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Courtesy of the Times - don't panic, don't panic.
Theresa May is to put the country on a no-deal Brexit footing this summer as she prepares a series of public warnings about the impact of leaving the European Union without agreement. Consumers and companies will be given detailed advice in weekly “bundles” from the start of next week on how to prepare for “a disorderly Brexit”, under government plans.
Ministers have so far refused to expand on a commitment to release 70 technical notices on “no-deal” contingencies after the Chequers agreement on the next stage in negotiations with Brussels.
The development came as:
• Michel Barnier warned Mrs May that her Chequers plan breached basic European principles and she would need to make further concessions for a deal.
• The International Monetary Fund said that Britain’s departure from the single market and customs union would do as much economic damage to Ireland as it would to the UK.
• The prime minister prepared to make a speech in Northern Ireland insisting that she would not jeopardise the Union by agreeing to the EU’s customs plan.
• Julian Smith, the Tory chief whip, was said to have admitted intending to break the “paired voting system” before Brexit votes in the Commons this week.
Up to 250,000 small businesses in Britain are about to be asked to start preparing to make customs declarations for the first time as part of the government’s summer campaign. Ministers will tell the businesses, which export to the EU but not beyond, to invest in customs arrangements at the point “we think a no deal is likely”, Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, said. Another leading civil servant, John Manzoni, told MPs yesterday that ministers would have to balance causing unnecessary alarm with giving prudent advice. “There needs to be a narrative to say, ‘Actually we don’t want this to happen but we have to prepare just in case it does and here are all the things that we have to do’,” he said. Advice to British travellers to buy health insurance to replace reciprocal arrangements rendered invalid could be part of the campaign, Hilary Benn, head of the Commons Brexit committee, said. Others have speculated that the advice will include warnings of huge disruption at ports and airports and advice on stockpiling food.