Reality of Brexit border delays must focus minds in business

BREXIT, the word, has been in our heads for so long now – virtually since it was coined shortly after the 2016 referendum – that it has almost lost its meaning as real concept.

But that began to change yesterday when Cabinet Minister Michael Gove frankly spelled out one of the consequences of leaving the EU without a free trade deal.

Up to 7,000 lorries queuing in Kent because they cannot cross the Channel for want of the correct paperwork is a frightening scenario. Just as scary are the implications that kind of chaos would have further up the supply chain, for exporting businesses and the people who work for them, here in the Westcountry and elsewhere.

Like a long-planned and rather worrying trip to the dentist that you try to put to the back of your mind until the day dawns, the real implications of exiting the European Union without a deal have been easy to push to one side. But in less than 100 days, the day will dawn.

Mr Gove did not pull his punches in the House of Commons yesterday, telling MPs just one in four firms are “fully ready” for the post-Brexit arrangements. That means between only 30% and 60% of laden HGVs would arrive at the border with the necessary formalities completed for the goods on board.

“They’d therefore be turned back by the French border authorities, clogging the Dover to Calais crossing,” he warned, adding that this could lead to queues of “up to 7,000 HGVs in Kent.” And he went on: “These queues and associated disruption and delay would of course subside as unready businesses who had their goods turned back at the French border would not want to repeat the experience. But it is clearly far better that everyone is aware now of what is needed to prepare rather than to face additional disruption next year.”

There is, of course, a way to avoid all of this chaos and that is for businesses to heed the Government’s advice and put in place all the measures necessary to be Brexit-ready in time for the end of December. Those who still believe Brexit was a mistake and who hope against hope that some, in their eyes, ‘miracle’ might occur and we stay in the EU are deluded.

As Mr Gove pointed out, Britain voted leave. Arguments about whether they were warned of the potential for tailbacks of 7,000 lorries in Kent are now largely redundant; what matters now is that anyone who needs to travel to the EU or send goods there – for pleasure but particularly for business – must prepare.

There is still a good chance a deal on favourable terms will be secured – it matters to the individual nations inside the EU just as much as it does to Britain. But if that doesn’t happen and we leave with no deal just after Christmas, it is doubly important businesses have done all they can to be ready. The Government, too, must do its bit.

What’s perfectly clear, however, is that no one can now avoid what’s coming. We are past the point at which an extension to the transition period can be negotiated. In little more than three months, Brexit becomes a reality.

There’s no putting it off – we have to be ready.