IF THE UK leaves the EU without a deal it could have “widespread, damaging and pervasive” on the country, according to a new report.

The report – Cost of no Deal – from academic think tank UK in a Changing Europe warned against the dangers of a “chaotic Brexit”.

UK prime minister Theresa May has repeatedly stated that no deal on Brexit is better than a bad deal.

The UK triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty in March, beginning a two-year process to extricate itself from the EU.

The second round of negotiations between EU and UK officials kicked off on Monday and are due to end today.

If no deal is struck, it could have a wide-ranging negative effect on various aspects of UK life including energy, trade and agriculture.

Scenarios 

The report looks at four different scenarios where no deal is reached, and describes the pitfalls of each.

• The “timed-out” Brexit, where the two years pass without agreement.
• A “premature Brexit” where the UK walks away from negotiations.
• Then there is the “cliff-edge” Brexit, where some issues are resolved but no proper trade deal is reached.
• The final scenario is the “chaotic Brexit”, where no deal is reached at all.

“Our findings show a chaotic Brexit would, at least in the short-term, spawn a political mess, a legal morass and an economic disaster,” said Professor Anand Menon of King’s College London, one of the report’s authors.

This report makes it clear ‘no deal’ is an outcome the British government must strive to avoid.

Northern Ireland 

The report authors also warned that no deal would result in “serious” consequences for Northern Ireland.

It said that if the UK did not reach a deal then that would mean the country leaving the single market and customs union and, as a result, “there will be a return to some form of hard border”.

The report called this “the very thing that everyone seems so keen to avoid”.

It said that this type of Brexit would be “truly chaotic” for Northern Ireland.

Yesterday, a report warned that Brexit had undermined political stability and exacerbated cross-community divisions in Northern Ireland.

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Read: Brexit has ‘undermined political stability’ and worsened divisions in Northern Ireland