BORIS JOHNSON

Michael Gove has pulled plans to publish a “watered down” version of the government’s Operation Yellowhammer no-deal Brexit contingency plans, after ministers decreed that the findings would still alarm the public. Mr Gove, minister for no-deal planning, had been expected to publish extracts of the document on Tuesday as part of his efforts to prepare the UK for the possibility of Brexit taking place without an agreement on October 31.

Government officials worked throughout the weekend overhauling the Operation Yellowhammer document, and Mr Gove had hoped to use the work to prove that he had a grip on potential no-deal problems. But, on Monday, Mr Gove and fellow cabinet ministers decided to abandon Tuesday’s publication of the document. “The meeting didn’t go well,” said one person close to the meeting. “The whole thing was seen as far too pessimistic about no deal.”

Last month, the Sunday Times published a leak of Operation Yellowhammer that said Britain would face shortages of fuel, food and medicine and three months of chaos at its ports in the event of a no-deal exit. The file, marked “official sensitive”, warned that lorries might face delays of two and a half days at ports and medical supplies might be vulnerable “to severe extended delays”. It also said the government had expected a return of a hard border in Ireland.

Mr Gove insisted that things had improved since that document was produced at the beginning of August, when it was presented to Boris Johnson’s first cabinet meeting, and that more money was being made available for contingency planning. To prove that point he hoped to use assumptions from the Operation Yellowhammer document on Tuesday to show that the government was well prepared when he makes a Commons statement on his £100m “Get Ready for Brexit” publicity campaign.

Although officials working on the rewrite said the paper had been deliberately “neutralised” it was still seen as too gloomy for publication to the general public. The decision to pull publication was taken on Monday at a meeting of the so-called “XO cabinet committee” — charged with preparing for no deal — chaired by Mr Gove. “The whole thing was buried,” said one person briefed on the meeting. Government sources denied that the revised Operation Yellowhammer document had been buried. “The thing is always being updated so it isn’t the sort of document that can be pulled,” said one.