Downing Street shoots down Liam Fox’s prediction that a no deal Brexit is now more likely
DOWNING Street has been forced to slap down a prediction by Liam Fox that a no-deal Brexit is now more likely than not.
The International Trade Secretary angered Theresa May yesterday by claiming an EU exit without agreeing a future trade deal is now odds-on.
Breaking ranks to speak out, Dr Fox gave the scenario a 60-40 chance.
The senior Tory blamed Brussels’ “intransigence” for the fresh impasse in talks after the EU Commission rejected the PM’s Chequers compromise plan.
Issuing a withering broadside at Eurocrats, Dr Fox said: “If the EU decides that the theological obsession of the unelected is to take priority over the economic well-being of the people of Europe then it’s a bureaucrats’ Brexit - not a people’s Brexit.
“There is only going to be one outcome.”
But despite the talks stalling afresh, Mrs May still fears that talking up the chances of no deal could spark a business exodus from Britain.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “We remain confident of getting a good deal.
“The fact is that we are ramping up our no deal preparations, as was planned, because there was always a possibility of no deal.”
Cabinet ministers will continue their summer tour of EU capitals this week in a bid to go over EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier’s head and talk round national leaders to Mrs May’s softer Brexit blueprint.
Yesterday there were more warnings about the danger of a no deal exit from businesses.
Aircraft maker Bombardier said that having to stockpile parts to mitigate the impact of borders going back up would cost its Belfast business up to £30 million.
Head of the firm’s Northern Ireland operation Michael Ryan dubbed the extra spending as “not how we can afford to run a business” and “cash that I don’t have”.
It also emerged that ministers are drawing up emergency no deal plans to redirect food exports to Belgian and Dutch ports if the French government imposes new checks that clog up traffic to Calais.
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Only lorries carrying perishable goods and strategic products such as military equipment would be able to continue with the Dover-Calais crossing.
Labour’s shadow Brexit Secretary dubbed a no deal outcome of talks with the EU as “a catastrophic failure of government, which no government should survive”.
Sir Keir Starmer blamed its cause as “the PM’s reckless red lines, Tory divisions & fantasy Brexiteer promises”.