The prime minister has previously warned this could happen, using a key Brexit speech in January to argue that “no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain”. “The government is flirting, as a negotiating tactic, with an option that poses huge dangers to UK industry, services and agriculture,” he said. Instead, the UK would move to “what is called the most favoured nation status deal with the World Trade Organisation”. Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, said his department was setting up a committee specifically tasked with examining what might happen if there were no EU deal. But it would not just be bad for the UK, it’s bad for Europe as a whole,” he said.

Source: The Guardian March 12, 2017 18:43 UTC