THE EU will today step up plans for a no-deal Brexit after Theresa May survived her “week from hell” with Boris Johnson maintaining the threat to her leadership over her “miserable” sell-out to Brussels.

As Dominic Raab, the new Brexit Secretary, is due this morning to hold his first face-to-face talks with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, the European Commission is expected to publish a report, urging member states to get ready for the possibility of Britain crashing out of the bloc without a deal.

One source suggested EU27 governments would be told to prepare for more border checks on goods as well as additional restrictions to flights across Europe. “A hard Brexit is becoming, almost daily, a more likely possibility,” he said.

This week, Pieter Omtzigt, the rapporteur on Brexit for the Dutch Parliament, revealed his country’s government had now “hired almost 1,000 customs officials just in case Britain crashes out”.

On Tuesday, Leo Varadkar, the Irish premier, made clear his Government would be increasing its preparations for a no-deal because of the “turmoil in Westminster”.

While the UK Government has insisted it is confident of getting a deal with Brussels, David Lidington, the Cabinet Office Minister, said Whitehall would be setting out more details of its own no-deal contingency plan.

Appearing before the Commons Liaison Committee of senior MPs, the Prime Minister said around 70 "technical notices" would be sent out soon, explaining what would be required for citizens and firms in the event of no deal.

She denied the prospect of not getting an agreement with Brussels was growing but added: “If we are in a no-deal scenario, then we will lay out the consequences for the public. What we are doing at the moment is working for a deal."

The Tory psychodrama continued to play out at Westminster when Mr Johnson gave his resignation statement to the Commons, in which he accused Mrs May of "dithering" over the Brexit negotiations and claimed her Chequers Plan would leave Britain in a “miserable, permanent limbo”.

The former Foreign Secretary urged his colleague to change tack, declaring: “It’s not too late to save Brexit.”

Earlier during a rowdy end-of-session Commons question-time, the PM – who today will be in Northern Ireland to reinforce her no hard border pledge - came under fire from both the Conservative and Labour benches.

Rebel Tory Brexiteer Andrea Jenkyns asked her party leader when she had decided "Brexit means Remain".

As shouts rang out across the chamber, Mrs May replied: "At absolutely no point, because Brexit continues to mean Brexit.”

Jeremy Corbyn for Labour denounced the PM’s Chequers Plan as a “cobbled-together mishmash” and claimed the Conservative Government had “sunk into a mire of chaos and division”.

The PM hit back, saying: “While I was agreeing the future of Nato with President Trump, he was joining a protest march against him. While I was delivering a plan for our future trade with the EU, he was delivering a plan to teach children how to go on strike.

"And while I was negotiating our future security relationship with Europe, he was renegotiating the definition of anti-Semitism. He protests, I deliver," she declared to Conservative cheers.

But the SNP’s Ian Blackford launched another broadside, accusing Mrs May of putting the interests of her party before those of her country.

Claiming the Government strategy was a “bùrach,” the Highland MP said: “We cannot crash out of the EU without a deal. We need to think of the next generation, who will pay a price for this folly. They will see lost opportunities and lost jobs.

“Did the Prime Minister come into Parliament to have this as her legacy? Will she now face up to the reality and extend article 50?” he asked.

The PM replied with a terse “no,” having earlier hit back at Mr Blackford’s suggestion that she was putting party before country. She told him: “The Scottish National Party should really think about what it is doing when it promotes the independence of Scotland, which is clearly against the interests of its country.”

Later, after taking questions from the Liaison Committee, Mrs May was met by cheers and the banging of desks as she attended the Tories’ backbench 1922 Committee.

One MP insisted her appearance had been a triumph and noted: “It’s been a week from hell but she has survived it. We now all need a holiday from Brexit.”

However, Steve Baker, the former Brexit Minister who resigned over the Chequers Plan, suggested 48 signatures might have been raised to trigger a leadership challenge.

He said: "A number of 40 has been bandied around in this House in the last few days…It gives me no pleasure to say it but the thing I have to say is 'and the rest.’”

Yet one rebel MP, Simon Clarke, stood up to tell the 1922 committee he had withdrawn his letter calling for a confidence vote in Mrs May.

“God knows,” he declared, “the threat of a Corbyn government is real. We’ve looked into the abyss in the last few days…We should just not do this.”