A leading French politician has warned that Dover and Calais are facing “economic catastrophe” if no Brexit deal is reached by next March.

Xavier Bertrand, a former French minister and president of Hauts-de-France, is reported to have warned MPs that the two ports were drifting to disaster.

In comments reported by The Guardian, he said he was growing increasingly concerned no contingency plans were in place to deal with the likely congestion and delays at the two ports in the absence of any deal.

His comments come after a meeting with MPs from the foreign affairs select committee, including the chairman, the Kent MP Tom Tugendhat.

Mr Bertrand tweeted: “French & British governments have to talk to each other to find a solution, or we are heading for something catastrophic.”

He said he would be urging the French President to hold talks with the Prime Minister to organise contingency plans.

The intervention by M.Bertrand was welcomed by the Dover and Deal Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke.

He said: “Xavier Bertrand is right. We must accelerate preparations at the border for every eventuality. It's just as much in France's interest as ours that trade continues to flow without delay and that we are Ready on Day One.

If the EU refuses to play ball, we should get to work with leaders in Calais like Xavier who are keen to make Brexit work."

M. Bertrand said:“The way things are going, we are going to be left standing staring at each other like strangers. It’s madness, pure utter madness."

The fact that Brexiteers felt that no deal was an option made him despair.

“If there are delays of two minutes there will be queues of 27km on both sides – that's 54km [34 miles]. Even at the moment you see queues of 1km to the tunnel – and that is where there are no checks. Imagine what it will be like with checks.”

'We need to pressurise the French parliament and President Macron of the need to talk to the UK directly. Now I am losing my sense of optimism but I want to find a way to avoid that catastrophe if things are not going to get better.”

France recently revealed it is to hire 700 new customs officials for nationwide deployment. But it is not clear how many will be allocated to Calais.