A NO-DEAL Brexit has the potential to provide a major shock to the country as 40 years of agreements with our closest neighbours are torn up over night.

It could be that, like the Millennium Bug which was going to wreak havoc to computers as 1999 moved into 2000, the potential is not fulfilled, but even Boris Johnson does not believe a no-deal exit can be smooth, which is why the Prime Minister is still trying to get a deal.

Good luck to him.

However, as details of Darlington council’s no-deal, worst-case scenario planning emerged yesterday, Nigel Farage said that he believed that a no-deal exit was the only true form of Brexit. An exit with a deal, he told Mr Johnson, would be a betrayal of the 17.4m people who voted to leave.

Even if this assumption is true, the 17.4m leavers do not have the right to inflict the potential pain of no-deal on the rest of the UK’s 66.4m population when a smoother transition could still be possible. Therefore, the opposition parties are right to seek ways to co-operate to prevent a no-deal exit.

But, all the opposition parties are now remainers, and so leavers will have understandable fears that their real intention is to block Brexit altogether.

Whichever way you voted, the country is deeply divided and facing a potentially devastating economic shock. We are in a sorry state, and Mr Johnson must ensure his tough talk posturing does not prevent him reaching a compromise deal.