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From this morning's Sunday Times

Jim Carroll

OPERATION CHAOS: Whitehall’s secret no-deal plan leaked
The Sunday Times obtains the government’s classified Yellowhammer’report in full
Rosamund Urwin and Caroline Wheeler

Britain faces shortages of fuel, food and medicine, a three-month melt¬down at its ports, a hard border with Ireland and rising costs in social care in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to an unprece¬dented leak of government docu¬ments that lay bare the gaps in contingency planning.
The documents, which set out the most likely aftershocks of a no-deal Brexit rather than worst- case scenarios, have emerged as the UK looks increasingly likely to crash out of the EU without a deal.
Compiled this month by the Cab¬inet Office under the codename Operation Yellowhammer, the dos¬sier offers a rare glimpse into the covert planning being carried out by the government to avert a cata¬strophic collapse in the nation’s infrastructure.
The file, marked “official-sensitive” - requiring security clearance on a “need to know” basis - is remarkable because it gives a comprehensive assessment of the UK’s readiness for a no-deal Brexit.
It states that the public and busi¬nesses remain largely unprepared for no deal and that growing “ÉU exit fatigue” has hampered contin¬gency planning which has stalled since the UK’s original departure date in March.
A senior Whitehall source said: “This is not Project Fear - this is the most realistic assessment of what the public face with no deal. These are likely, basic, reasonable scenarios - not the worst case.”
The revelations include:

* The UK government expects the return of a hard border in Ireland as current plans to avoid widespread checks will prove “unsustainable”; this may spark protests, road block¬ages and “direct action”

* Logjams caused by months of border delays could “affect fuel distribution”, potentially disrupting the fuel supply in London and the southeast of England

* Up to 85% cf lorries using the main Channel crossings “may not be ready” for French customs and could face delays of up to 2 1/2 days

* Significant disruption at ports will last up to three months before the flow of traffic “improves” to 50-70% of the current rate

* Petrol import tariffs, which the government has set at 0%, will “inadvertently” lead to the closure of two oil refineries, 2,000 job losses, widespread strike action and disruptions to availability

* Passenger delays at EU airports, St Pancras, Eurotunnel and Dover

* Medical supplies will “be vulnerable to severe extended delays” as three-quarters of the UK’s medicines enter the country via the main Channel crossings

*The availability of fresh food will
be reduced and prices will rise. This th could hit “vulnerable groups” Sp

*Potential clashes between UK wl and European Economic Area fishing vessels amid predictions that 282 ships will sail in British waters illegally on Brexit day        
* Protests across the UK, which Ui may “require significant amounts of police resources]

* Rising costs will hit social care, with “smaller providers impacted within 2-3 months and larger providers 4-6 months after exit”

* Gibraltar will face delays of more than four hours at the border with Spain “for at least a few months”, which are likely to “adversely impact” its economy

The revelations come as Boris Johnson signals that he would set a date for a general election after the UK has left the EU if Jeremy Corbyn succeeds in a vote of no confidence - preventing rebels from being able to stop a no-deal Brexit.
Johnson is preparing to hold talks with France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, ahead of this week’s G7 summit in Biarritz. But No 10 was last night playing down any prospect of a Brexit breakthrough and Germany believes no deal is “highly likely”.
The leak of the YeUowhammer dossier underlines the frustration within Whitehall over the lack of transparency surrounding preparations for leaving the EU. “Successive UK governments have a long history of failing to prepare their citizens to be resilient for their own emergencies,” said a Cabinet Office source.
The absence of a clear picture of the UK’s future relationship with the EU has hindered preparations as it “does not provide a concrete situation for third parties to prepare for”, the document states.
Some of the bleakest predictions relate to goods crossing the French border. The file says that on the first day of no deal between “50% and 85% of HGVs travelling via the short channel straits [the main crossings between France and England] may not be ready for French customs, reducing the flow of freight lorries to between 40- 60%”
of current levels”. Unready lorries will “fill the ports and block flow” and the worst disruption to the main crossings could last for “up to three months before it improves by a significant level, to around 50-70%” of current levels.
Despite Johnson repeatedly saying during the Tory leadership cam¬paign that there will be “clean drinking water” in the event of no deal, the document raises the possibility that a failure in the chemical supply chain could “affect up to 100,000s of people”.