France triggers 'hard Brexit' plan, to invest in ports and airports

PARIS (Reuters) - France has put in motion a contingency plan to deal with an eventual "hard Brexit," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday, including 50 million euros ($57 million) of investments to help ports and airports cope.

"What's certain is that the scenario of a no-deal Brexit is less and less unlikely. That's why... I have decided to trigger the plan for a no-deal Brexit," Philippe told reporters.

Prime Minister Theresa May's two-year attempt to forge an amicable divorce was crushed by the British parliament on Tuesday in the biggest defeat for a British leader in modern history.

($1 = 0.8773 euros)

 

(Reporting by Michel Rose and Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Richard Lough)