11 September 2019

Financial Times: Yellowhammer document sets out potential damage of no-deal Brexit

A no-deal Brexit would mean delays at Dover, widespread protests, travel disruption and potential shortages of food, medicines and fuel under the worst-case scenario laid out in the government’s official “Operation Yellowhammer” plan. 

Ministers finally released the controversial documents at close to 8pm on Wednesday night after months in which they had fought to keep them secret. 

Just hours earlier, business secretary Andrea Leadsom said it would be a mistake to publish the documents because they would only “concern” people. “I actually do not think that it serves people well to see what is absolutely the worst thing that could happen,” she said. 

The government, however, stood by its refusal to release communications between government aides in the run-up to the prorogation of parliament this week. That demand had been the second strand of the dramatic Commons vote on Monday night. 

In a letter to leading Brexit rebel Dominic Grieve on Wednesday night, Mr Gove called the request ‘unprecedented, inappropriate, and disproportionate’.

“Ministers, not civil servants, are the decision makers. They are accountable, both in Parliament and to the electorate, for the decisions taken,” he wrote.

The Yellowhammer document, put together by a unit in the Cabinet Office with input from various government departments, said that France could potentially impose EU mandatory controls on goods coming into Dover on day one. That could cut by 40-60 per cent the flow of lorries going across the Channel, causing severe disruption for up to three months. 

“In a reasonable worst-case scenario, HGVs could face maximum delays of 1.5-2.5 days before being able to cross the border.”

The paper, marked “official sensitive”, predicted passenger delays at the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras and at Dover with disruption on transport services. Fuel distribution could be hit in London and the south-east while panic buying could spread to other parts of the country. [...]

Full article on Financial Times (subscription required)

Operation Yellowhammer documents

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