Video: Gregory Campbell warns against 'madcap' Brexit scare stories

The East Derry MP said businesses did have genuine concerns that had to be taken seriously.

But, he said: “There is a massive difference between some of the realistic concerns of businesses about no deal and some of the madcap scare stories that are going around.”

He asked the British Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the EU, James Dudderidge: “What is the Minister doing to ensure that there is an understanding of realistic concerns and to dismiss some of the other wild stories?”

Mr. Dudderidge said: “There will always be knockabout politics, but I would prefer to engage in the detail.

"I was in NI...talking to businesses on the border and then in Belfast discussing alternative arrangements with a wide range of businesses, engaging them in the very real detail and not the high-level scare stories. There are concerns and they are being dealt with, but they should not be confused with the bigger scare stories.”

Sinn Féin MP Elisha McCallion, in contrast, has warned of a Brexit-precipitated recession.

She was speaking after an Ulster Bank survey warned that the North’s economy has already ‘entered or is entering recession’.

“This survey is yet more evidence of the very real and negative impact that the DUP’s disastrous support for Brexit is having on our economy, on jobs and the livelihoods of people who live here.

"The DUP’s catastrophic support for the Tory Brexiteers has brought us nothing but political chaos, austerity cuts and economic recession,” said Elisha McCallion.