BRITAIN must ramp up preparations for crashing out of the EU without a deal, the Brexit Secretary warned today.
Steve Barclay insisted No Deal contingency plans will be restarted “at pace” if Theresa May’s deal is defeated in the Commons.
He warned that if MPs don’t back the existing deal Britain will be on course to leave without one in five months’ time.
And he hit out at Remainers who assume they’ll be able to delay Brexit yet again if the deal falls next month.
A new poll shows 63 per cent of Brits want to leave with No Deal in the event of Mrs May’s deal being killed off.
Mr Barclay told Sky News: “Members of Parliament do need to face facts, and if the deal were not to go through then there are only two alternatives.
“Any idea of a second referendum is just a proxy for revoke. You either leave with a No Deal, or you revoke.
“If Parliament won’t back a deal, then it needs to confront that reality.
“I do think we need in those circumstances to bring forward our preparations to mitigate No Deal, because we will need to use the additional time we have, and we need to move at pace to do so.
“There is no guarantee that the EU27 will grant an extension, that isn’t a UK decision on 31 October, so we do need to prepare for a No Deal and ensure that we use the time we have to mitigate any disruption as best we can.”
Mr Barclay praised the PM’s efforts to deliver Brexit, saying: “She’s sacrificed her premiership in order to fight for a deal.”
The Brexit Secretary has led the Government’s No Deal preparations over the past few months.
But the contingency plans were put on ice after the original Brexit date of March 29 was canned.
