The government wants to use controversial powers to enable a “serious shortage protocol”

Pharmacists will overrule GPs to ration drugs under a no-deal Brexit, The Times has learnt.

Ministers will order them to alter prescriptions without first contacting the patient’s GP in order to mitigate any extreme shortages, according to a leaked document.

The contingency measure was revealed in an urgent consultation begun this week by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). It called for rapid changes to medicine rules to “support the continuity of supply of medicines in a ‘no-deal’ scenario”.

Last night Labour accused ministers of an “astonishing power grab” while GPs demanded more details about how patient safety would be protected.

The government wants to use controversial so-called Henry VIII powers to enable ministers to issue a “serious shortage protocol” for pharmacies to