THE chances of Britain leaving the EU without a deal is ‘increasing by the day’, foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned.

He spoke as he began talks with his opposite numbers in France and Austria, and as prime minister Theresa May prepares for a meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron on Friday.

Mr Hunt said Britain will not ‘blink first’ in Brexit talks as he called for France and Germany to soften the European Commission’s resolve.

‘There is real chance of no deal by accident,’ he said. ‘Everyone is assuming, no, no, no, this will never happen. Well, actually, it could.

‘France and Germany have to send a strong signal to the commission that we need to negotiate a pragmatic and sensible outcome that protects jobs on both sides of the Channel because, for every job lost in the UK, there will be jobs lost in Europe as well if Brexit goes wrong.’

His comments came after Tory MP Marcus Fysh accused Downing Street of ‘scaremongering’ over the consequences of no deal. He said: ‘They should get behind Brexit, which people voted for.’

But Jim Winship, the director of the British Sandwich and Food To Go Association, said yesterday: ‘If we suddenly have border controls being introduced, that’s going to cause problems with the fresh ingredients. We live in a just-in-time world. We don’t stockpile ingredients.’

On the charm offensive

JEREMY HUNT has bought flowers in Paris to say sorry to his Chinese wife Lucia. The foreign secretary tweeted the picture after mistakenly telling diplomats in Beijing she was Japanese.