Ferries are blocked by protesting fishing boats in Whitehall wargame preparing for no-deal

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Ferries were confronted by a blockade of protesting fishing boats, care homes were shut down and a gang of bandits hijacked a vaccine shipment in a no-deal Brexit tabletop exercise. 

Post-Brexit wargame Operation Capstone also saw medicines heading for hospitals battling with mounting Covid-19 cases stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier yesterday warned there are just ‘a few hours’ left to secure a breakthrough deal.  

Fishing increasingly appears to be the biggest remaining obstacle with Emmanuel Macron is insisting that French fleets maintain previous levels of access to British waters post-Brexit. 

Operation Capstone – which was played out across Government offices last week – imagined the motorway in Dover at a standstill caused by no-deal disruption.

A criminal gang tried to hijack an import of vaccines in the test, which also saw mass protest sweep the country – with both Brexiteers and Remainers getting heated.

The scenario also saw a huge care home provider close its doors due to a devalued pound and a block on hiring staff from EU member countries, The Times reports.

Two storms causing mass flooding in the north of England and an explosion on Gibraltar.

But even with the series of disastrous events, ‘the system worked’, a source revealed.

They said: ‘The work of the Brexit XO committee over all these months means we have contingency plans in place for absolutely everything. 

‘This has been stress-tested to within an inch of its life, we’re ready for no-deal.’

The committee is responsible for getting ready for life after Brexit.

Earlier this week, Boris Johnson appealed for the EU to ‘see sense’ over Brexit demands on fishing rights – as he admitted that No Deal will be ‘difficult’.

The PM warned there was still a ‘gap that needs to be bridged’ between the two sides, making clear that Brussels must ‘come to the table’ to help find a way through.

He accepted that the collapse of talks and reverting to WTO terms from December 31 would be ‘difficult at first’ – but delivered a bullish message that the country would still ‘prosper mightily’. 

The comments, on a visit to Bolton, came after Michel Barnier warned there are just ‘a few hours’ to secure a breakthrough.

The bloc’s chief negotiator told the European Parliament that the talks had reached the ‘moment of truth’ after nearly a year of desperate wrangling – and with less than a fortnight to ratify any agreement struck.

But he warned that the path to a settlement was ‘very narrow’, with Downing Street branding the EU’s stance ‘unreasonable’ and insisting no deal is still the most likely outcome despite some progress.

Fishing increasingly appears to be the biggest remaining obstacle. Mr Johnson is said to have joked to No10 officials that the Britons will be ‘eating fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner’ after the transition period ends on December 31.

On a visit to an OpenReach facility yesterday, Mr Johnson stressed the public voted in the EU referendum to control its own laws and waters.

‘No sensible government is going to agree to a treaty that doesn’t have those two basic things in it as well as everything else,’ he said.

‘Our door is open, we’ll keep talking, but I have to say things are looking difficult.

‘There’s a gap that needs to be bridged, the UK has done a lot to try and help, and we hope that our EU friends will see sense and come to the table with something themselves, because that’s really where we are.’

He acknowledged there would be difficult days ahead in the short term if the transition period ends on December 31 without a trade deal in place.

‘Yes, it may be difficult at first but this country will prosper mightily, as I’ve said many, many times, on any terms and under any arrangement, and I think we’ve just got to get through this period and look to all the opportunities that will open up to this country in 2021,’ he said. 

Speaking to MEPs in Brussels yesterday, Mr Barnier said he was heading straight back from the session for a ‘last attempt’ to break the impasse with the UK’s Lord Frost. 

‘It’s the moment of truth. We have very little time remaining, just a few hours to work through these negotiations in a useful fashion if we want this agreement to enter into force on the first of January,’ he said.

‘There is a chance of getting an agreement but the path to such an agreement is very narrow.’

Lord Frost said: ‘The situation in our talks with the EU is very serious tonight. Progress seems blocked and time is running out.’ 

In a call last night, the Prime Minister warned European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen he believed negotiations were ‘now in a serious situation’.

‘Time is very short and it now looks very likely agreement will not be reached unless the EU position changes substantially,’ he said.

Downing Street said Mr Johnson had ‘stressed that the UK could not accept a situation where it was the only sovereign country in the world not able to control access to its own waters for an extended period and to be faced with fisheries quotas which hugely disadvantaged its own industry’.

It is understood Brussels is pushing for an eight-year transition period that would mean the UK would not regain total control of its valuable fishing grounds until 2029. British negotiators had previously offered a three-year period.

No10 said Mr Johnson told Mrs von der Leyen ‘the EU’s position in this area was simply not reasonable and if there was to be an agreement it needed to shift significantly’.

Mr Barnier said yesterday: ‘We’re not asking more nor less than a balance between rights and obligations and reciprocity, access to our markets and access to our waters and the other way round, no more, no less.

‘It’s also obvious that this isn’t an agreement we will sign at any price or any cost.

‘I think I’ve always been frank with you and open and sincere. I cannot say what will come during this last home straight of negotiations. We have to be prepared for all eventualities.’

In her statement last night, Mrs von der Leyen said there had been ‘substantial progress on many issues’ but that ‘big differences remain to be bridged, in particular on fisheries’.

The issue of what should happen if the two sides want to vary their standards on labour, environment and state subsidies in the future – known as the ‘level playing field’ – is understood to be close to being finalised.

However, British negotiators are still pushing back against a demand from Brussels that the European Commission should be exempted from the arrangements on subsidies.