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To Deal or Not To Deal? May Warns Britons to Prepare For No-Deal Brexit

To Deal or Not To Deal? May Warns Britons to Prepare For No-Deal Brexit
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UK Prime Minister Theresa May warned the British public to prepare for crashing out of the EU with no deal, setting out emergency plans to avoid border meltdown for businesses and travelers.

To Deal or Not To Deal? May Warns Britons to Prepare For No-Deal Brexit

As hopes of an agreement appeared to fade at home and abroad, May - for the first time - set out detailed "steps to minimize disruption" on Brexit day in 2019.

They included plans for huge inland lorry parks to cope with the lengthy new customs checks that will be needed - to avoid ports becoming traffic-choked.

The move came as May admitted she expected the deadlocked negotiations to drag on for another year before any possible breakthrough.

At Westminster, Brexiteer Tories exploited May's weakness - after last week's attempted coup - to demand that Chancellor Philip Hammond, and other voices of compromise, be sidelined.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, May's insistence that she would make no further compromises in the talks - she told the EU "the ball's in their court" - was firmly rebuffed. "There has been, so far, no solution found on step one, which is the divorce proceedings, so the ball is entirely in the UK's court for the rest to happen," said Margaritis Schinas, the European Commission's chief spokesman.

Laying bare the impasse, Brexit Secretary David Davis did not attend the first day of the resumed talks, although he is expected to be in Brussels on Tuesday.

In the Commons, May continued to insist that "real and tangible progress" towards an agreement had been made since her high-profile speech in Florence last month. But she also made clear that new policy papers on trade and customs were intended to show Britain could operate as an "independent trading nation" - even if no trade deal was reached.

The planned legislation for post-Brexit customs arrangements set out what would be required under a "no deal" exit.

In her statement, May suggested any Brexit agreement was a long time off and would come right down to the wire. "We are negotiating a deal. We will not have negotiated that deal until, I suspect, close to the end of that period that's been set aside for it," she said.

Source: The Independent, Edited by website team

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