Ministers are preparing to use new powers to impose price caps on medicines after drug firms began pushing up prices in the face of a possible no-deal Brexit.

Officials have drawn up plans to use price-setting powers for the first time after they were brought into law in 2017, The Telegraph can reveal.

Ministers said they were acting after some suppliers "increased their prices to what appear to be unwarranted levels."

It follows warnings that drugs prices were soaring, amid attempts to build up a stockpile ahead of Britain’s departure from the EU.

In December the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee - which represents pharmacists - warned of a surge in the number of drugs which were now being reimbursed at special rates, above the standard national tariff, amid growing shortages.

Last week Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, assured MPs that the Government had secured additional ferry capacity to ensure the "unhindered" supply of medicines to the UK if the country leaves the EU without a deal.