Boris’s Channel crossing dream is a bridge too far

JEREMY HUNT has washed his hands of Boris Johnson’s plan to build a bridge across the English Channel.

The newly appointed Foreign Secretary, who took over after Mr Johnson quit in protest at the Government’s Brexit policy, has quietly ditched the idea of a new fixed link between the UK and France.

The decision has prompted opposition MPS to claim Mr Johnson’s former Cabinet colleagues “can’t move quickly enough to dump” his legacy at the Foreign Office.

Mr Johnson made headlines in January when he raised the prospect of Britain and France building a bridge over the Channel. The MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip said at the time it was “ridiculous” that two of the world’s biggest economies were only “linked by a single railway”.

He discussed the idea with Emmanuel Macron during an Anglo-french summit and The Daily Telegraph disclosed that when he had suggested the idea of building a second Channel crossing, the French president replied: “I agree. Let’s do it.”

But the Foreign Office has now confirmed it is not looking at the plan.

Patrick Grady, the SNP MP for Glasgow North, asked Mr Hunt to set out what the Foreign Office’s policy was on the construction of a bridge between the two nations.

Sir Alan Duncan, a Foreign Office minister and Mr Hunt’s deputy, said in a written response: “This is a matter for the Department for Transport.”

Speaking in February, Mr Johnson told MPS it was a “curiosity” that the UK and France – separated by around 21 miles of water – were not better connected. But Sir Alan’s response appears to signal the plan will not survive.

Mr Grady said: “It seems the Tory Government can’t move quickly enough to dump Boris’s legacy at the Foreign Office. It was never clear if a new fixed link to France was government policy or just another of the former foreign secretary’s diplomatic blunders, but now his successor has washed his hands of it altogether.”