The document warns that:

- Chaos at the border as a result of new customs controls could lead to freight trucks being delayed by up to 2.5 days, reducing the flow of goods to about 40 percent of its current level.

- If unmitigated, the backlog would have an impact on the supply of medicines and medical products, whose supply chains across the Channel “make them particularly vulnerable to severe extended delays.” The short shelf lives of some medicines make it impossible to stockpile them to cover anticipated delays of up to six months.

- Supplies of certain types of fresh food will decrease, leading to price rises that could impact the poor. While it wouldn’t lead to overall food shortages, the disruption would come at a critical time, with the UK growing season finished and supply lines under heavy demand ahead of Christmas, and panic buying could exacerbate the problem.

- Pro- and anti-Brexit protests will break out around the country, eating up significant police resources, and there could also be a rise in public order and community tensions.

Labour transport spokesman Andy McDonald said a no deal Brexit would disrupt every area of British life, and hit the working class the hardest. “This is more like emergency planning for war or a natural disaster and we're doing this voluntarily,” he told the BBC. “Boris Johnson is crashing the ship against the rocks, and he'll have a lifeboat — working people will not.”

Forced to publish the paper, the government has sought to paint it as out of date, claiming that since it was written, on August 2, Downing Street has taken considerable steps to mitigate some of the predicted consequences of a no deal scenario. Michael Gove, the minister in charge of no deal preparations, said the government plans to publish revised assumptions “in due course.”