Government refund

I think it is shocking that Portsmouth City Council is left with a £7m debt to cover checking facilities in the port which were required by the government and are now no longer to be used. At least, not this year.

Processing goods coming from abroad according to our own regulations, was meant to be a keynote policy following Brexit but now Jacob Rees-Mogg (the minister for Brexit opportunities) has declared that it is an unnecessary expense for the taxpayer, leaving cities with ports angry and frustrated.

Rees-Mogg, arch-leaver and long-time loather of the EU, has now admitted that implementing Brexit in full and honouring the 2016 promise to take back control of Britain’s borders, would be ‘an act of self-harm’.

Remember how these border checks were seen, not merely as a price worth paying for leaving the EU but as a genuine benefit? We were told that Britain would at last be free to set its own food standards, superior to the EU’s.

Let's hope that at the very least, they restore the funds Portsmouth has been required to pay.

Sue James