29 days to stop Brexit border chaos
Fears of food delays
BRITAIN faces “serious disruption and delay” to food and other shipments across the Channel when the Brexit transition ends in 29 days, MPs warn today.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee says it is “extremely concerned” about “significant risks” to the country being ready for the December 31 cut-off date.
And it accuses Boris Johnson’s Government of “taking limited responsibility for that readiness”.
The PM won an 80-seat majority at last year’s general election saying he had an “oven-ready deal”.
But as British and EU negotiators continue to try to strike a trade agreement, PAC chairwoman Meg Hillier was scathing about preparations for the end of the transition.
The Labour MP said last night:
“Pretending things you don’t want to happen are not going to happen is not a recipe for government, it is a recipe for disaster.
“We’re paying for that approach in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic and can only hope we are not now facing another catastrophe, at the border in four weeks’ time.
“But after 12 PAC reports full of warnings, ev idence suggests that we face serious disruption and delay at the short Channel crossings that deliver a majority of our fresh food supplies.
“The lack of definite next steps and inability to secure a deal adds to the challenge. A year after the ‘ovenready deal’, we have a cold turkey and businesses and consumers do not know what to be prepared for.”
In their report today, MPs highlight a Whitehall admission that 36% of small and medium-sized firms thought the transition would be extended, which the Government has ruled out. The Cabinet Office “does not know how many of the remaining 64% will be ready”, it adds.
A Government spokeswoman said: “With less than one month to go, it’s vital businesses and citizens make final preparations.
“That’s why we’re intensifying engagement through the Brexit Business Taskforce.”
This mess is not a recipe for government it’s a recipe for disaster
MP MEG HILLIER BLASTS THE UK’S PREPARATIONS
A BREXIT campaign worker who sent an email to thenLiberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson threatening her young child has been jailed.
Zac Damon, who worked for Vote Leave and UKIP, left the former MP so terrified she put in extra security at her son’s nursery.
Damon, 40, first sent the mother of two an email on September 9, 2019, which said: “You are utterly pathetic and a first class ****.”
On September 25, he sent another which read: “You might want to take extra care of that little son of yours.” Ms Swinson said in a victim statement she “felt sick” when she opened the message at Parliament.
She said: “Receiving this was chilling. All I wanted to do was hug my child close”. She said she was used to abuse but threats to her children were “past the line” of acceptability. Damon, of Portsmouth, Hants, pleaded guilty at the magistrates court to sending indecent or grossly offensive emails to cause distress or anxiety. He was jailed for 12 weeks.