Region’s ports set to take up Brexit challenge
Northern sites could step in if Dover is gridlocked
NORTHERN PORTS are “ready to take up the challenge” of ensuring goods can still flow in and out of the UK if Brexit results in severe delays for trade routes via the south coast, a senior industry official has claimed.
Talks are already under way between Associated British Ports, which operates ports in Hull, Goole, Grimsby and Immingham, and officials in other northern European nations in the event of disruption at Dover after the UK leaves the European Union.
And David Leighton, group head of corporate affairs at ABP, told a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham that the firm had “some fantastic infrastructure on the East coast that is ready to take up the challenge”.
Officials on the South Coast have warned of serious traffic congestion around Dover, the country’s busiest port for goods vehicles, unless the Government achieves a Brexit deal involving frictionless trade.
Mr Leighton said: “I think from our perspective, we are planning for Brexit, and we are in the business of delivering solutions. So whatever happens we will find the solution.
“Ports on the East Coast, ports on the Humber and our colleagues at Teesside, really are part of the solution. If people are worried about the risk of disruption at ports like Dover, there is some fantastic infrastructure on the East Coast that is ready to take up the challenge.
“We have the space for customs checks if we need them and we have colleagues in the near continent – Rotterdam, Zeebrugge and so forth – that are working intensely and proactively with us to make sure we can keep trade flowing and growing.”
He added: “We have to acknowledge that we are only 50 per cent of the solution, there is the other 50 per cent, which is what people the other side of the water will do.
“I can’t speak for Emmanuel Macron so I can’t tell you what he’s thinking, but I can tell you that our dear friends in the Netherlands and Flanders and Scandinavia, we have agreement with all those folks who are committed to taking what the Department for Transport calls a pragmatic and risk-based approach, prioritising flow.”
Speaking at the same event yesterday, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said there was too much concentration of trade at Dover and he wanted a more diverse network of routes in and out of the UK.
He said: “I don’t see any scenario where Dover and the tunnel don’t remain fundamental to our trade, but as someone who believes both in resilience and competition, I am also keen to see other ports develop different trade routes.”
And at an earlier event he said the Government was looking at alternative routes to the DoverCalais link to move goods.
He said: “You can’t replicate Dover-Calais, that’s for certain, but you can deliver conduits for key supply chain elements.”
BRITAIN’S REGIONS should be given powers repatriated from the EU immediately after Brexit to ensure the entire country feels like it is “taking back control”, a northern metro mayor has said.
Tees Valley Metro Mayor Ben Houchen said Brexit provides a “huge opportunity” to rebalance power across the country.
But he spoke as the Conservative Party continued its open war over the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, with Chancellor Philip Hammond accusing Boris Johnson of pursuing a “fantasy world” Brexit with his alternative to Theresa May’s Chequers plan.
The broadside came on day two of the Tories’ conference in Birmingham, which has been dominated by splits over Brexit.
But Mr Houchen identified an opportunity which he said could help the Conservatives win parliamentary seats in the North and regain power after the next election.
He told a Policy Exchange fringe event at the Birmingham conference: “Devolution is a big key to winning voters, which I think George Osborne did very well in instigating.
“There is a huge opportunity here through Brexit, that some of those powers that are being repatriated through the Brexit process we need to be careful don’t get stuck in Whitehall, they get devolved out not just to our devolved administrations but also to our devolved regions.
“There’s a huge opportunity to be able to sell Brexit, not just repatriating powers to London, but actually saying taking back control to the regions, to local politicians so decisions and power is exercised closer to the individual than ever before.”
It came as Mr Hammond gave the Prime Minister’s Chequers plan a “high chance” of success, despite it being rejected by the EU in its current form and the conference so far being dominated by Brexiteers’ calls to “chuck” the proposals.
Mr Johnson, who will not speak from the main hall this year after quitting the Cabinet in protest at Chequers in July, will today address Brexiteer members and activists at a hotly anticipated fringe event.
The Chancellor yesterday became the latest Cabinet member to criticise the ex-Foreign Secretary, with the most outspoken attack in what appears to be a coordinated campaign.
In a round of broadcast interviews, Mr Hammond was repeatedly asked whether Mr Johnson could ever become Prime Minister, and stated several times: “I don’t believe that will happen.”
He told Sky News: “Of course, Boris is a big personality, nobody is denying that. What I’m saying is that the business of government is a process of attention to detail, follow-through, lots of hard work.
“It isn’t just about making flamboyant statements and big announcements, it’s about getting things done.”
He dismissed Mr Johnson’s call for the UK to negotiate a “superCanada” free trade agreement with the EU.
“It isn’t about taking back control, it’s about fantasy world,” Mr Hammond told ITV’s Good Morning Britain, arguing that the EU had made clear that a Canadianstyle free trade agreement covering the whole UK was not on the table, as Northern Ireland could not be included.
Meanwhile current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt was criticised by European politicians and diplomats after comparing the EU to the Soviet Union.
In a Sunday speech which was interpreted as a pitch for the Tory leadership, Mr Hunt accused Brussels of seeking to “punish” Britain for wanting to leave the EU and compared it to the USSR trying to stop its citizens leaving.
The comment was denounced as “unworthy of a British Foreign Secretary” by the former head of the UK’s diplomatic service, Lord Ricketts, while his successor as the Foreign Office’s Permanent Secretary, Sir Simon Fraser, described it as a “shocking failure of judgment”.
German Europe minister Michael Roth told the Foreign Secretary: “Sorry, Jeremy Hunt, the EU is no prison!”
A European Commission spokesman said: “I would say, respectfully, that we would all benefit, and in particular Foreign Affairs Ministers, from opening a history book from time to time. That’s the only comment I have.”
And Estonia’s ambassador in London, Tiina Intelmann, described Mr Hunt’s comments as “insulting” to those who lived under Soviet domination before the collapse of the communist regime in 1991.
Elsewhere, former Brexit Secretary David Davis accused Mr Hammond of using forecasts he knew were inaccurate during preparations for a no-deal Brexit to use as “weapons” against Eurosceptics who want a harder withdrawal from the EU.
Mr Davis’s replacement as Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab, meanwhile conceded that the Chequers exit plan is not everything he wanted – but told party members there had to be “compromises” with the EU.