LONDON — British businesses fear an exodus of senior U.K. government officials from key Brexit roles could leave the country ill-prepared to leave the EU without a deal in October.

The Brexit department confirmed to POLITICO that two more senior officials had left just days before a new prime minister enters Downing Street later this month.

The industry body representing the U.K.’s millions of smaller firms said the government would “struggle” to coordinate an escalation of no-deal preparations in Whitehall and the private sector if it continues to lose experienced officials from the Brexit brief.

“Government must now reinvigorate no-deal preparation from both public agencies and the private sector, and they will struggle if they continue to lose expert officials,” said Craig Beaumont, director of external affairs and advocacy at the Federation of Small Businesses.

The front-runner to become the next prime minister, Boris Johnson, has vowed to leave the EU with or without a deal on October 31.

“At an official level the churn has been phenomenal and now it’s going on at the top as well" — Executive working on Brexit at major firm

Since March 29, the U.K.’s original planned Brexit date, the Department for Exiting the European Union has lost two director-level officials, Chris Jones and Hugh Elliott, to other government roles, officials confirmed. Jones, DExEU’s director for justice, security and migration has left the department for a new role in the Home Office, while Elliott, director for communications and stakeholders, will become U.K. ambassador to Spain, a move initially announced last fall.

Their exits coincide with the departure of Tom Shinner, a senior official in charge of domestic preparations for Brexit, who is due to quit Whitehall later this year. And Olly Robbins, Theresa May’s chief Europe adviser in the Cabinet Office, is expected to leave the civil service in July after the new prime minister is in place.

The government’s lead official in charge of coordinating border policy, Karen Wheeler, quit her role at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs earlier this month and DExEU is also yet to replace highly rated Director General Sarah Healey, who left for the Cabinet Office a year ago and has since been placed in charge of the culture, media and sport department.

One executive working on Brexit for a major international firm said it is “scary” that Whitehall would need to replace director-level civil servants with less than four months until the country could leave the EU with no deal.

“You have to learn who your team are, who can be relied on to do what, what’s been tried before,” the executive said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “At an official level the churn has been phenomenal and now it’s going on at the top as well.”

Firms dealing with the government on Brexit have also been impacted by the loss of personal government contacts, as hundreds of officials drafted in to prepare for a potential no-deal before March returned to their home departments.

Smaller firms that heeded government warnings about no-deal before March — stockpiling goods and rerouting trade to avoid Channel crossings, only for Brexit to be delayed — now face a dilemma over whether to put such costly measures in place again for the new date. They may decide to gamble on the new prime minister shying away from Brexit in October, or being prevented by parliament from taking the U.K. out with no deal: a dilemma being dubbed “boy who cried Brexit syndrome.”

Beaumont said that because of the costs involved, businesses that did nothing to prepare for no-deal before March earned a “competitive advantage” over those that were prudent.

“This makes it all the harder to go through all of this a second time, convincing small business owners to stop running their businesses and instead prepare all over again. Losing key officials from EU exit teams across government, who understand business, will exacerbate this,” he said.

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union, which represents senior-level civil servants, said that while each individual official’s reasons for leaving a Brexit role would be different, a combination of “burnout” and frustration with “relentless attacks” on civil service impartiality are playing a part.

“The Civil Service continues its work and extensive preparations to leave the EU. When a staff member leaves any role, arrangements are made so that business continues as normal.” — Cabinet Office spokesperson

“I don’t think you can look at the series of people who have gone and not reckon that some of the stuff around Brexit is having an impact,” he said. “At the beginning Brexit was a very attractive policy area to work in. From day one, civil servants saw a challenge at the heart of government and wanted to be at the heart of it. There will be a bit of burnout from that, but also some people now saying: ‘you know what, it’s no longer the attraction it was.’”

However, he said that while departures of key individuals could mean “real losses,” the civil service as a whole would retain “institutional memory” and continue to prepare extensively for no deal. Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill said last month the civil service is in “pretty good shape” to leave the EU with no deal if necessary in October.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The Civil Service continues its work and extensive preparations to leave the EU. When a staff member leaves any role, arrangements are made so that business continues as normal.”