The government can’t escape fresh Brexit disruption and delays

Boris Johnson may soon be forced to talk up “getting Brexit done” as the legacy achievement of his time at No 10. The prime minister is battling to save his premiership amid the partygate scandal, as Tory opponents wonder how quickly the Johnson era can be brought to an end.

Yet the messy consequences of Johnson’s exit deal with the EU are still unravelling, as British businesses undergo yet more turmoil following changes to trading rules.

Another January brings another round of delays and disruption. Lorry drivers have reported queueing for up to eight hours to get through customs controls at the French port of Calais, after new checks on imports came into force at the start of 2022.

And as The Independent has revealed, some trucks bringing goods into the UK have been pulled aside and stuck in customs controls for four days because of the “terrible” extra red tape.

How bad will the disruption be in the weeks ahead? January is a quiet period. Logistics bosses fear things will get worse and have a knock-on impact on supply chains when trade picks up in February.

But government officials are desperately hoping that the friction caused by “teething” problems in the government’s IT system will have eased by then. Ministers may well hide behind global supply-chain issues caused by Covid if asked about lorry queues and empty shelves at supermarkets.

Yet Brexit continues to cause unique difficulties in the UK. Some of the current disruption is down to problems with the Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS) managed by HMRC. Imports must now be processed using the new system – but many drivers have been unable to get their reference codes accepted.

The problem is wider, however. Disruption in getting trucks cleared is also down to firms struggling with complex new customs declarations and rules-of-origin forms – each requiring dozens of entries – that they must now complete on goods imported from the EU.

Almost one in four small businesses in the UK stopped shipping to the EU in 2021 after export controls came into force last January, according to the Federation of Small Businesses.

The same organisation recently told The Independent that many importers wouldn’t be able to cope with the latest changes and would “have to wind up” during 2022.

This is the hidden tragedy that the photos of trucks stuck in queues cannot capture.

The collapse of businesses may show up in statistics many months from now. But for many British traders up and down the country, the bureaucratic hell brought about by Brexit has a vivid, painful and life-changing impact.