Planning for a no-deal Brexit at the end of this year would ‘overwhelm’ the country’s emergency response capacity, the Government has been warned in a leaked report.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his aides have repeatedly made clear that they will not seek an extension to the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December.

But the first national review to capture the UK’s response to coronavirus has now warned that failing to seek an extension threatened to ‘compound COVID-19 with a second UK societal-wide, economic and social, chronic threat’.

The warning is contained in a 76-page report by the C-19 National Foresight Group, a cross-government team supporting local resilience forums (LRF).

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