The UK will launch what has been described as the “most critical” phase of its post-Brexit border regime with the EU on Tuesday, April 30th. But port bosses say that London officials have left them in the dark about key details of its implementation.
Rishi Sunak’s government can hardly blame timings. Britain voted to leave the EU eight years ago, and three years have passed since it left the bloc’s single market. During this time, various Conservative Party administrations have delayed the introduction of new border checks on food, animal, and plant products on five separate occasions, despite criticism from related industries.
It looks like there won’t be a further delay this time, but trade officials are still angry that certain details of the changeover have not been clarified. One senior port executive told Politico:
It’s enormously frustrating that after literally years—a period where the physical facilities at ports have been ready and at a time when ports are feeling the wrath of customers for charges that are not of the ports doing—we’re still waiting for government to deliver at one minute to midnight.
Port operators are particularly concerned about the fact they have spent millions of pounds on trade inspection facilities and don’t know how they’re supposed to get back the costs of running them. Importers also say they lack access to a “crucial” government IT system needed for invoicing.
Leftist activists have unsurprisingly blamed all this on Britain’s departure from the EU itself. Richard Corbett, formerly a Labour Party MEP, described this as “another fine mess Brexit has got us into.”
Jacob Öberg, a professor of European Union law, also responded—in a post that is as original as it is funny—that “in today’s shambles, shambles, shambles … could be a Brexit song.”
Others, who are perhaps less blinded by a strong hatred of all things Brexit, have identified this as an issue which lands at the feet not of Brexit in and of itself, but of the Conservative government’s handling of it.
Naomi Smith, who is herself a ‘Remainer,’ wrote online that port bosses have been left in the dark because the government is “inept,” adding that the Conservatives “are no longer the party of business.”
Thinktanker Caroline Slocock also accused ministers of “campaigning, not governing, again,” and said that “key things the government must deliver to make this work and keep costs down [are] still not in place.”
Ben Habib, who was once an MEP for the Brexit Party and is now deputy leader of Reform UK, told The European Conservative that “it should come as no surprise our government is not ready to institute post-Brexit border controls,” pointing to “two insurmountable problems.”
First, our political class has no positive vision of Brexit. Instead of it being an economic revival, they regard it as a necessary evil. So they haven’t planned anything positively.
Second, as we all now know, they couldn’t organise a booze up in a brewery.
Statements from government spokespeople have done little to soothe growing concerns at UK border posts, with Marco Forgione, director general of the Institute of Export and International Trade, saying that “just hours before we go live there are still some pretty important pieces of information that they are not aware of.”
