Priti Patel said that Ireland will face “significant issues” in a no deal situation

Ireland faces food shortages and will suffer a bigger economic hit than Britain in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to leaked government papers.

Cabinet ministers and Brexiteers have seized on the papers, obtained by The Times, as they believe their contents could let Theresa May put pressure on Ireland to drop the “backstop”.

The papers say the UK leaving the EU without a deal would cause a 7 per cent drop in GDP for Ireland, compared to a 5 per cent drop in Britain. This is because Ireland is “a more open economy than the UK, accounting for 60 per cent of GDP comprised of goods imports and exports, as opposed to 40 per cent for Great Britain”.

Ireland is also more