‘Brexit to blame’ for travel gridlock at Dover, union says

This weekend’s traffic chaos in Dover is a “predictable” consequence of Brexit as France “takes back control” of its border, an immigration union chief has said.

A major incident has been declared at the Kent port as long queues are expected following queues of up to six hours on Friday and thousands of families attempt to get away at the start of the summer holiday season.

The gridlock has been blamed on a shortage of border control staff on the French side of the Channel.

But Immigration Services Union general secretary Lucy Moreton said that disruption of this kind was only to be expected following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Brexit meant French checks on UK travellers had been stepped up from the “minimal” controls familiar from the EU period.

“It’s certainly the case that the checks are more rigorous than they used to be prior to Brexit,” she said. “We’re now of course outside the EU, and they’re entitled to treat us as they treat any other non-European traveller. So they do the same level of checks on us as we do - and have always done in fact - on them.”

Ms Moreton added: “This isn’t our border that we’ve taken back control of. In fact, France has taken back control of its border in this respect.

“This is democracy. There was a vote. Some people voted for it. Some people voted against it. This is one of the outcomes that was reasonably predictable. And this is the time that it’s chosen to bite.”

The head of the Port of Dover, Doug Bannister, said that travellers may again have to endure delays of five or six hours trying to get onto ferries today, as more vehicles were expected on Saturday than Friday, and a large backlog remains to be cleared.

Asked if waits of that duration can be expected, he told Today: “It could be.

“We were expecting that today was going to be a busier day than yesterday. Yesterday, we processed about 8,500 cars going out. Today we were predicted to be around 10,000. So it is going to be a very busy day down here.”

Kent County Council leader Roger Gough said that by Saturday morning there were around 3,000 HGVs parked on the M20 and being “fed through slowly” to boarding areas. He said there was also some disruption at the Eurotunnel terminal at nearby Folkestone, as well as spillover effects on local traffic.

He said the incident was part of a “much wider problem” with movements across the Channel, which might require a “big programme” of change to maximise capacity at the port.

“This is a severe disruption we have at the moment,” said Mr Gough. “It’s not the first and it won’t be, I fear, the last.”

Mr Bannister confirmed that Brexit had increased the bureaucratic controls at the border, slowing the movement of vehicles, but said that plans were in place to ensure the port should be able to cope “for the most part” during the busy summer season.

“We are operating in a post-Brexit environment, which does mean that passports need to be checked, they need to be stamped,” he said.

“One of the challenges we find is that if we don’t have a sufficient amount of resource capacity through all the steps in the process the very first thing in the morning, then we can lose the queue very, very quickly and create the impact that we felt yesterday right around the county.

“In a post-Brexit environment there will be increased transaction times at the border. What we have done in response to that is created more border capacity so that overall throughput could be maintained.

“In our modelling, whilst we do know that we have got some very peak busy days during the summer season, for the most part we should be able to cope with the traffic.”

Labour chair Anneliese Dodds said: “While the Conservatives fight amongst themselves, families are stuck waiting hours on end to begin their family holiday as the chaos in Dover continues, and once again the government has failed to get a grip.

“After 12 years of failed Tory government, Britain is stuck. Stuck with a low-growth, high-tax economy, stuck at home unable to get a passport or a flight, stuck on the phone trying to book a GP appointment.”