BOURNEMOUTH and Poole are on a leaked list of areas where jobs are said to be most at risk from a no-deal Brexit.

The secret document is said to have been compiled as part of the government’s Operation Kingfisher contingency plans to support business.

It names areas “vulnerable to a shock by virtue of having large plants, in vulnerable sectors, with labour markets that would struggle to cope”.

The list is headed by Sunderland, where Nissan employs 6,000 people at the UK’s biggest car factory, with other northern cities such as Crewe, Carlisle, Preston and Blackburn close behind.

But Bournemouth is at number 30 on the list, with Poole at 31 and Salisbury at 32.

The list, leaked to the Sunday Times, was created in the run-up to the original Brexit date of March 31. Other documents obtained by the paper suggest that “business readiness” has deteriorated since then.

In its account of Poole’s “Brexit risk”, the Sunday Times said: “Sunseeker employs 2,500 people, around 300 of which are EU citizens. Almost half of its sales come from Europe.”

Of Bournemouth, it said: “The area is reliant on its sizeable financial services industry (JP Morgan employs 4,000 people), while Bournemouth council Brexit planning has been delayed by ‘staffing gaps’. The seaside town is already seeing delayed investment and labour shortages, according to a Bloomberg report.”

The government document dates from before Bournemouth council was replaced by BCP Council.

Poole MP Sir Robert Syms said: “It is clearly better to do a deal but I’ve had very little concern raised by local businesses on a no-deal exit.

“Most say the uncertainty of endless extensions is a worse problem.”

Patrick Duffy, the Brexit Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Bournemouth East, said: “There’s still a great deal of uncertainty around the impact of any kind of exit, with or without a deal. A lot of the claims being made are pure scare stories.

“That they have a ranking I fully understand, but I think the underlying assumptions are wrong as to what happens in a deal or a no-deal.

“Clearly in the Bournemouth area, on the face of it the concern is going to be staff. But we have yet to understand exactly how this is going to play out and I think it’s far too early to be making any assumptions about what the costs are likely to be to particular areas, let alone the whole country.”

Sunseeker has previously said it has hedged against risks such as Brexit by “becoming a truly global brand”, expanding in the US and the Asia Pacific region rather than just the Mediterranean countries.