S&P predicts hard Brexit and fresh downgrade for UK

In a blunt assessment the ratings agency calls UK a deeply divided, diminishing economic power on verge of losing the right to freely export to the EU

Britain is in store for a hard Brexit that will hit the UK economy and lay bare the deep divisions in British society, a leading ratings agency has warned.

In a bleak assessment of the UK's prospects following the EU referendum, Standard & Poor's said Britain was a diminishing global economic power on the verge of losing the ability to freely export goods and services to the EU.