Caroline Lucas, former leader of the Green Party, has said MPs must return to Parliament to hold an "increasingly reckless" Boris Johnson to account.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Lucas said: "I think there is ever more evidence of the, frankly, impending national emergency that we are facing. MPs should be in Parliament holding an increasingly reckless Prime Minister to account.

"Since his election as Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has been subject to, I think, about three hours of scrutiny, and yet he is putting his foot on the accelerator, driving the country off the cliff-edge as if he had a huge mandate and overwhelming support. Well he has no mandate for this. The Government has a majority of precisely one."

She added: "I think at a time of such emergency, the public are rightly saying 'Where are MPs? Where are they when it comes to holding this Prime Minister to account?'."

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Ms Lucas said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell both support MPs being recalled to Parliament.

Ms Lucas told the Today programme she had spoken to Labour MP Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) and Independent MP Luciana Berger (Liverpool Wavertree), who coordinated the letter calling for MPs' recall to Parliament.

She said: "They have assured me that they have spoken to both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, and they both support this, so I think there is a rising concern that Parliament needs to be doing its job.

"MPs need to reaffirm the principle of democracy in which the legislature can and must reign in an executive that is, quite frankly, lurching out of control."

She said the problems the UK could face as a result of a no-deal Brexit are more than just "bumps in the road", and are more like "cavernous sink holes".

She added: "Unless MPs get back into Parliament and hold this Prime Minister to account, we are going to go into those sink holes and it's going to spell a disaster for this country."

Avoiding no-deal must be the "number one priority" for the Government, according to Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the CBI (Confederation of British Industry).

Ms Fairbairn told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think that what Yellowhammer does show is just how incredibly serious for our economy a no-deal outcome would be. It is difficult to predict exactly what the outcome could be but in terms of our conversations with businesses over the years, these feel like plausible outcomes."

She added: "We would also totally agree with Michael Gove in terms of the importance of preparation. Business does have to prepare but I think, above all else, what this shows is that we must be trying to get a deal. And that must be the number-one priority of Government."