No-deal Brexit TV advert compared to Dad’s Army

The cast of 'Dad's Army' (from left) Clive Dunn, James Beck, John LeMesurier, Arthur Lowe, John Laurie, Ian Lavender and Arnold Ridley (Photo by Douglas Miller/Keystone/Getty Images) - Credit: Getty Images

The government’s no-deal TV adverts have been compared by Labour to Corporal Jones’ warnings in Dad’s Army not to panic.

But shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett said the possibility of ‘thousands of job losses’ is ‘no joke’.

He told the Commons today: ‘The country is hanging on a no-deal cliff-edge, and today we read the government’s latest idea; a ludicrous TV advert saying to the public from Friday onwards ‘don’t panic’.

‘A bit like Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army. But this is not the Home Guard in the 1940s is it? And the prospect of thousands of job losses and the shortages of food and medicine and so on, it’s no joke.’

He asked Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis, who was standing in for Cabinet Office minister David Lidington, if he would be voting to rule out no deal tonight.

Lewis criticised the Labour frontbencher, saying they wanted to know what preparations were made for such a scenario, and then ‘complaining that we’re preparing the public for what may happen on March 29’.

Later the House of Commons will vote on a series of amendments which could take no-deal off the table, at least temporarily.