Army chief denies that military are on standby to deliver food, medicine and fuel in case of no-deal Brexit

The man in charge of Britain’s armed forces has denied that the military are on stand-by to deliver food, medicine and fuel in case of a no-deal Brexit.

General Sir Nick Carter was asked about reports that the army is being put on standby, saying: “There hasn’t been any request yet as far as I’m aware.”

Asked whether there had been discussions about a no-deal Brexit, the Chief of the Defence Staff told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The Armed Forces are always doing contingency planning but we’ve not been asked that specific question.”

He added: “We do contingency planning for all manner of contingencies – not this one specifically – but all manner of different ones.”

His comments come as Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said while a no-deal Brexit was “highly undesirable”, the possibility of it is “uncomfortably high at this point”.

Mr Carney said work had been ongoing to make sure the financial system was in a “robust position” so it “lessens the impact of a bad deal in this case, a no-deal Brexit”.

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He said: “What we have done is we have made sure that the banks have the capital that they need, have the liquidity they need, and that we have the contingency plans in place so that if there were to be a no-deal Brexit – and not just a no-deal Brexit but a no-deal Brexit without any transitions, so something that truly is by accident because it’s absolutely in the interests of the European Union and the United Kingdom to have a transition to whatever deal.”

Asked if no deal would be a disaster, Mr Carney said: “It is highly undesirable. Parties should do all things to avoid it.”

Mr Carney said a no-deal Brexit would mean “disruption to trade as we know it” meaning “higher prices for a period of time”.

He said: “Our job at the Bank of England is to make sure those issues don’t happen in the financial system so that people will have things to worry about in a no-deal Brexit, which is still a relatively unlikely possibility but it is a possibility, but what we don’t want to have is people worrying about their money in the bank, whether or not they can get a loan from the bank – whether for a mortgage or for a business idea – and we have put the banks through the wringer well in advance of this to make sure they have the capital.”