British Member of Parliament Tobias Ellwood shakes hands with a police officer as he arrives at the Houses of Parliament, London, March 24, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s armed forces are making contingency plans for how they could support the country if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, senior British defense officials said on Sunday.

Asked what role the armed forces could play if there was a ‘no deal’ Brexit, British defense minister Tobias Ellwood said: “The armed forces stand ready to support Britain on a practical basis”

“There are contingency plans being made, there are discussions being held behind the scenes as to what support our armed forces will do,” Ellwood said on the ‘Ridge on Sunday’ television program.

“With the transition from Brexit, if there is a requirement to provide assistance we’re looking right across the full spectrum of requirements to make sure that we are prepared.”

Earlier, the chief of Britain’s defense staff General Sir Nicholas Carter said the armed forces were making “sensible” contingency plans on Brexit and other issues.

Asked if the army was making preparations for a no deal Brexit, Carter said: “What we always do is make sensible contingency plans for all sorts of eventualities .... at this stage, I think people are confident there will be a deal, if there’s not one then we stand ready to help in any way we can.”