Britain will not be ready for a no-deal Brexit: National Audit Office

London | The British government, which is confronting the growing spectre of crashing out of the European Union without a deal, has been warned it no longer has enough time to prepare its borders for a hard Brexit and will have to cut corners to keep the £423 billion ($776 billion) of annual Britain-EU trade flowing.

The government's own National Audit Office said the Border Force would be unable to hire enough staff in time, and 11 of the dozen critical IT systems required at the border were "at risk of not delivering on time and to acceptable quality" by March 29 next year, the date Britain leaves the EU.