If There is No Deal Brexit....

A journey into the all-too-near future depicts the disruptions—economic, cultural, even animal— that could shake a U.K. that’s crashed out of the EU.

- Joe Mayes and Alex Morales

This account of the first 24 hours of a no-deal Brexit is based on interviews, government documents, and academic research. The people described are real, as are their views on Brexit. Dialogue is real and faithfully rendered from actual interactions but projected into the near future. Brexit might not play out this way. Prime Minister Boris Johnson could reach a deal with the European Union. Parliament’s attempts to block a no-deal departure could succeed or delay the inevitable. Johnson could be booted from office. We won’t know until we know.

11 P.M., OCT. 31, WESTMINSTER, LONDON The digital Brexit countdown clock in Boris Johnson’s office at No. 10 Downing St. reads 00 Days, 00:00:00 in red digits. The U.K. has left the EU.

Even after an astonishing Supreme Court ruling in September that he illegally suspended Parliament, the prime minister ignored a law forcing him to ask the EU for a delay and delivered Brexit anyway. His final pitch to extract concessions at an Oct. 17 summit ended in failure, leaving no alternative: It had to be no-deal. He said it during his leadership campaign, and he meant it—the country would leave the EU on schedule, “do or die.”

As the clock strikes zero, the prime minister isn’t in his office. Instead, he’s at 70 Whitehall, ensconced in a cabinet office briefing room (or Cobra), the British government’s nerve center during emergencies. Operation Yellowhammer, the code name for the no-deal Brexit contingency plan, is in full swing.

A deal would’ve given the U.K. a grace period to prepare for life outside the EU. Instead, the immediate rupture has left the country alone on the world stage for the first time since the early 1970s. It’s gone from being the gateway to Europe to an isolated nation stripped of major trading relationships.