The DUP and Sinn Fein have clashed over warnings that a no-deal Brexit could lead to electricity blackouts in Northern Ireland.

A single electricity market operates across Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Government officials have warned of risks of price increases and supply shortages, the BBC reported.

Technical papers being drawn up by the UK include worst-case scenarios in the case of the country leaving the EU without a deal next March.

They do not necessarily represent the likely outcome.

Sinn Fein Stormont Assembly member Mairtin O Muilleoir said: “This is just the latest example of the catastrophic impact which the Brexit agenda risks imposing on the entire island of Ireland.”

Sinn Fein’s Mairtin O Muilleoir highlighted concerns about a ‘catastrophe’ after a report that a no-deal Brexit could lead to electricity shortages in Northern Ireland (Niall Carson/PA)

Mr O Muilleoir said costs could rise by as much as 34%.

“That is the kind of collateral damage that the Brexiteers in the Tory Party, aided and abetted by the DUP, are prepared to force upon the people of the North.

“It again reinforces the absolute necessity of ensuring the referendum vote in the North is respected by securing special status for us to remain.”

The DUP North Antrim MP Ian Paisley dismissed the warning.

He tweeted: “Fake news. Don’t forget planes falling out of the sky, food shortage, mass unemployment and pestilence.”

An all-island Single Electricity Market operates across Northern Ireland and the Republic and is designed to help keep down costs for consumers.

It is part of a UK-Ireland bilateral agreement rather than an EU one and has been in place for more than a decade.