Brexit news latest: Medical shortages may put lives at risk with no-deal, warns health chief

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Patients “may die” if Britain is allowed to crash out of the European Union in 21 days time, the Chief Medical Officer warned today.

In a dramatic intervention, Dame Sally Davies said lives “are at risk” despite intensive preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit.

“We cannot guarantee that there will not be shortages, not only in medicines but technology and gadgets and things,” she said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “And there may be deaths, we can’t guarantee there won’t.”

Pressed if lives would be at risk, she firmly replied: “They are at risk.”

A health chief has warned medical shortages may put lives at risk with a no-deal Brexit under Boris Johnson, who is pictured in Downing Street on Thursday
Alastair Grant/AP

Her warning came as Boris Johnson held low-key talks in Cheshire with Irish PM Leo Varadkar in a bid to find common ground.

A key issue was giving Nationalists in Northern Ireland a greater say over future customs arrangements, following Mr Johnson saying in an Evening Standard interview earlier this week he was willing to avoid a so-called “DUP veto”.

But former chancellor Philip Hammond dismissed Mr Johnson’s Brexit proposal as “never going to fly”.

And he put himself at the head of a Tory rebellion against the Party leader’s plan for an early general election and “immediate” Brexit if he wins.

Philip Hammond
AP

Mr Hammond said he would vote against an election: “I don’t think an election solves our problem here. I would not support an election at the moment,” he told Today.

He strongly criticised the Cabinet’s “reckless” squandering of a £27 billion spending headroom he left behind, warning the Conservative reputation for being “responsible with the economy” was in peril.

“I do worry about a strategy which is reckless about our economic future in terms of advocating no-deal Brexit and reckless about our public finances in terms of spending money that, frankly, at this point in the Brexit negotiation, we cannot be sure we have available.”

Business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said Mr Johnson and Mr Varadkar were “seriously focused” on a deal.

But his boss, Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom, said last night that the Government will not accept a backstop in any form — and might sabotage an extension of Brexit if it was sought under the Benn Act.

Speaking on ITV’s Peston programme, Ms Leadsom was asked if Mr Johnson might send one letter requesting an extension but tell European leaders he does not really want it. Ms Leadsom replied: “Absolutely.”

The Government responded to Dame Sally’s warning by saying it was well prepared for Brexit. A “Brexit warehouse” will hold about 1,000 extra products including medical gloves, needles and dressings at a cost of about £5 million.

Asked in the Commons if he could say that no person “will suffer in their health”, the minister in charge of preparations, Michael Gove, replied: “Yes.”

Hopes of a breakthrough from today’s talks were low and no press conference was planned. Before the meeting, Mr Varadkar said it would be “very difficult” to secure a deal next week. EU negotiator Michel Barnier said Britain had not produced an “operational, legally binding solution”.

Mr Johnson is planning an emergency Saturday sitting of Parliament after next week’s summit when he may ask MPs to vote to leave without a deal or hold an election.

Former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt wrote to EU leaders last night urging them to compromise or risk Britain hardening its position after an election.

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