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No-Deal Brexit Risk 50% If Plan Is Rejected, Panel Chief Says

No-Deal Brexit Risk 50% If Plan Is Rejected, Panel Chief Says

(Bloomberg) -- Britain faces a 50 percent chance of a no-deal Brexit if Parliament rejects Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal with the European Union next month, according to the chair of the House of Commons Treasury Committee.

“If this agreement doesn’t get approved by Parliament and Parliament isn’t able to come up with an alternative, it is possible the government might say that’s it, we’re going to go for no deal and spend the next three months frantically preparing for that,” Nicky Morgan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

The Conservative lawmaker said that preparations for such an outcome are not in place. Her comments follow a warning last week from the nation’s most senior tax official, who told the Treasury Committee that even if the deal survives new customs arrangement may not be ready by the end of the transition period in December 2020.

But Morgan, who campaigned to stay in the EU before the 2016 Brexit vote, said she is not in favor of a second referendum as “people voted for change.”

--With assistance from Francine Lacqua and Tom Keene.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charlotte Ryan in London at cryan147@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Andrew Atkinson

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