BORIS Johnson has been warned against an emergency budget before Brexit, after his Chancellor stoked fears of one by announcing £2.1bn extra for no-deal planning.

Sajid Javid said there would be a budget “at some point”, but the public would have to “wait and see” when, despite the announcement usually coming in November or December.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak also fuelled speculation about an emergency budget by refusing to rule one out before October 31.

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He said he and Mr Javid were “working very hard on figuring the exact timing” of the budget.

The Bank of England today downgraded the UK’s growth forecast from 1.5 to 1.3 per cent in 2019 and from 1.6 to 1.3% in 2020, based on the assumption Mr Johnson gets a new Brexit deal from the EU.

However it said the perceived likelihood of no-deal had also increased, and if that took place it would lead to a further fall in the pound, depress GDP growth and increase inflation.

Governor Mark Carney said said “profound uncertainties” over Brexit and global trade were now “weighing on the UK’s economic performance”.

The Bank left interest rates unchanged at 0.75% but said they could rise if inflation went up.

Mr Carney said most large businesses reported they were preparing for no-deal, but just one in five considered they were fully prepared.

The uncertainty over the budget follows a report that Mr Johnson’s top political aide Dominic Cummings has already told civil servants to expect and emergency budget on October 7.

This would be the week after the Tory conference, and the apparent intention would be to ramp up pressure on the other EU 27 nations to agree to a last-minute deal.

However Paul Johnson, the director of the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said a pre-Brexit budget was “an extraordinarily bad idea”, with no good reason to justify it.

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“You can’t do anything very much that’s going to make a difference by the first week of November,” he told the Public Finance website.

He said emergency measures to stimulate the economy to offset the shock of a no-deal, could make the situation worse, by boosting demand for imports through choked ports.

He said: “A lot of the problems created by no deal will be supply-side issues – things getting stuck in ports or customs – and stoking up the economy when you have already got supply constraints is probably the last thing you want to do.”

The warning came as Mr Johnson chaired his government’s Exit Strategy (XS) committee for the first time, after Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove chaired one on Monday.

Mr Javid also announced up to £2.1bn would be spent on no-deal preparation this year, on top of £4.2bn already announced.

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Around £1.1bn of the new money has been allocated to specific tasks, while the other £1bn will be available for contingency spending if required.

The spending measures include an unprecedented public information campaign of £138m, which dwarves the £9m then PM David Cameron spent on information in the EU referendum.

A further £434m has been allocated to stockpiling and warehousing medicines, £344 million for border and customs operations, and £108m for business support.

There will also be support for passport processing, improved infrastructure at ports and extra cash for Operation Brock - the plan to cope with traffic chaos around Dover.

However some of the money has been previously announced, and there is scepticism about a target to recruit, vet and train 500 new Border Office force officers by October 31.

Meg Hillier, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said MPs would investigate whether the government was "throwing" money at Brexit irresponsibly.

She said there was "not enough time" to spend such large sums efficiently in just a few weeks.

Mr Javid said: “With 92 days until the UK leaves the European Union it's vital that we intensify our planning to ensure we are ready.

"We want to get a good deal that abolishes the anti-democratic backstop. But if we can't get a good deal, we'll have to leave without one.

"This additional £2.1bn will ensure we are ready to leave on October 31 - deal or no deal."

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it was an “appalling waste of tax-payers' cash”.

He said: “All for the sake of Boris Johnson's drive towards a totally avoidable no-deal.

"This government could have ruled out no-deal and spent these billions on our schools, hospitals and people."

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Asked by the BBC about a possible emergency budget today, Mr Javid left the date hazy.

He told the BBC: “Eventually at some point we will have a budget.”

Pressed on a date, he said: “We will have to wait and see.”

Mr Sunak said processes to recruit extra border officials have been sped up in preparation for leaving the EU "hopefully by the end of October".

He told Radio 4's Today Programme: "We have already got 500 new border force officials working. The 500 extra that we've announced today recruitment is already in process. The procedures have already been centralised, they have been sped up, and 250 of those will be on the front line at the end of October, with a further 250 to come over the coming months."

Asked how many extra staff are actually in place, Mr Sunak said: "I don't have the exact HMRC staffing arrangements in front of me. What I can tell you is the money from the Treasury has been allocated and deployed to all those departments."

On the budget, he said: "We will have a fiscal event in the autumn. We would like to give people certainty as soon as possible. We are working, both the Chancellor and me, we've been in these jobs a few days, we're working very hard on figuring out the exact timing of that and, hopefully, we'll have something to say on that reasonably soon."

SNP MP Stephen Gethins said: “Rather than working to avert a catastrophic no-deal exit, Boris Johnson is accelerating over the economic cliff-edge.

“With just three months to go before the revised Brexit date, Boris Johnson should be ruling out a no-deal exit and instead working towards bringing the Brexit chaos to an end - not pursuing an avoidable and purely ideological policy that lays bare the shameful priorities of this Tory government.

“The staggering £6bn for a no-deal Brexit is a shameful waste of money at the same time as Tory welfare cuts are increasingly driving people to foodbanks and public services are still bearing the pain of Tory austerity.”