Theresa May has set a date for Whitehall to trigger a series of no-deal Brexit preparations as her government faces up to the possibility that there will be no agreement with the EU about Britain’s departure.

With less than six months to go before the UK leaves the bloc, the cabinet has agreed that a flurry of activity will be triggered in the second week of November as the government prepares to crash out of the EU, informed sources said.

Civil servants have also accelerated plans to lay down new laws and secondary legislation so that UK businesses and both British and EU citizens can prepare.

The move follows concerns across government that preparations for how the UK might cope with crashing out the EU are still uncertain. The Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, told cabinet colleagues on Tuesday that Whitehall departments needed to step up their efforts next month and move “from warning businesses to telling them to act”.

Whitehall has until now concentrated on the publication of more than 100 technical notices detailing the potential impact on particular industries but not on individual businesses and people.

A source said that there would be an acceleration of preparations after MPs return from a short break on 12 November. “We have to get on with no-deal legislation. At the moment, we’re looking at the same legislation for a deal as no deal. In the case of no deal it would need royal assent before we leave.

“There will be an awful lot to discuss. It will concentrate minds. Obviously we don’t want to upset the negotiations, but the clock is ticking and it will get harder and harder the later we leave it,” the source said.

If May fails to negotiate a deal, the UK would no longer be part of the EU’s regulatory regime, introducing barriers for businesses trading between the UK and EU. It would also create uncertainty about the legal status of EU residents in the UK and Britons living in the other 27 member states.

MPs will return from recess to find that new laws have been drawn up to be laid before parliament to cope with the UK leaving the the EU without a deal, the source said.

According to the Institute for Government, the government will have to pass a citizens’ rights bill to give certainty to EU nationals. There would also have to be a separate migration bill to end free movement among the hundreds of statutory instruments the government would have to pass to ensure continuity after Brexit.

MPs have expressed growing concern at the lack of engagement between Whitehall departments and businesses. Meg Hillier, the chair of the Commons public accounts committee, wrote to Jon Thompson, the head of HM Revenue and Customs, saying she was “concerned and disappointed” that small firms had not been contacted about how to prepare for the possibility of no deal.

Amyas Morse, the head of the National Audit Office, told MPs earlier this month that excessive secrecy across Whitehall meant that civil servants and the public had been kept in the dark about the government’s proposals.



The Treasury and HMRC have announced £8m in funding to help customs brokers train new employees to prepare for a no-deal Brexit. Customs intermediaries, which help firms to move their goods through customs checks, will also be able to apply for grants.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said on Wednesday: “I am increasingly concerned, literally with every day that passes right now, that the prospect of a no deal is becoming ever greater."

“As things stand just now I think no deal may actually be the most likely outcome, and that is deeply concerning,” she told Holyrood’s committee conveners.



