The government have drawn up battle plans for the possibility of being hit with a second wave of coronavirus and a No-Deal Brexit simultaneously, it has been claimed.
Leaked documents warn of a potential social care crisis from councils going bankrupt and the army being drafted in to prevent public disorder.
The revelation puts mounting pressure on ministers to negotiate a deal with Brussels to avoid a double-header in December, when it is predicted the country could be hit by a second spike.
The classified file, seen by The Sun, appears to be in the form of powerpoint slides and is titled ‘Preliminary set of Reasonable Worst Case Scenario Planning Assumptions to support civil contingencies planning for the end of the Transition Period’.
It was created by the Cabinet Office’s EU Transition Task Force over concerns the government was not doing enough to get a deal signed before the end of the Transition Period on New Year’s Eve.
It follows the leak over Operation Yellowhammer in August last year, a civil contingency plan in the event of a No Deal Brexit.
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier this week raised concerns by saying getting a trade deal done in time ‘seems unlikely’. The implications of a No Deal on the economy could be far reaching, and would be considerably worsened when combined with a winter virus.
Revealed in the leaked document, Whitehall is planning for the potential of public disorder caused by food shortages and price hikes.
The government are believed to have allocated an extra £3billion for the NHS and an extra £600million for social care, although it is not clear if this will go to councils or be organised centrally.
Covid-19 testing capacity will be extended to 300,000 a day and billions of items of PPE delivered to health and social care workers. A further £775million will be spent on new border and customs infrastructure and new border rules phased in over six months to try to avoid backlogs.
Downing Street is pushing hard for a trade deal but is making contingency plans for an ‘unruly’ exit from the EU transition period at the end of December.
With trade talks looking set to go the wire, there is a risk they collapse putting up trade barriers overnight on 1 January. The Cabinet Office responded to the leak by outlining a series of contingency plans said to already be in place.