Brexit border checks scaled back for fear of port chaos

BREXIT border checks to be introduced at the end of the month have been quietly scaled back amid fears they would trigger huge tailbacks at ports.

Ministers had announced that they would introduce long-delayed new customs controls covering swathes of goods entering Britain from Apr 30. But in an update yesterday, they revealed that physical inspections will at first only be carried out on products that “pose the most risk” of spreading disease.

Business leaders criticised the Government amid uncertainty over what level of bureaucracy they will face, describing the situation as “complete disarray”.

The EU introduced full checks on British goods the day after Brexit, but the UK did not reciprocate over fears of chaos at ports, especially Dover.

Officials drew up plans for a new “world class” border system, but it was delayed five times before the first phase was finally implemented in January.

The second part of the project was set to come into force at the end of the month, mandating extra inspections and paperwork for “medium-risk” products.

It means that importers of food like cheese, salami and fish will have to pay up to £145 per consignment to pay for the additional health checks.

At the start of the year, ministers introduced some paperwork for goods arriving from the EU which “present a ‘medium risk’ to biosecurity and health”.

They said “documentary, physical and identity checks at the border for medium risk animal products, plants and plant products” would follow from April 30. But yesterday the Government said that in fact “the priority for physical checks from day one will be on the highest risk goods”.

It came as Boris Johnson condemned the UK Government for having “killed” its free trade deal with Canada and failing to take full advantage of “Brexit freedom” in negotiations.

The former prime minister blasted Rishi Sunak’s Windsor Framework for having led to the breakdown of negotiations, claiming the UK’s approach was “ridiculous, unnecessary and cowardly”.

Writing in his column, he said: “We have killed (and I mean killed) the free trade deal with Canada because we no longer have the nerve to deviate from EU policy on hormone-treated beef, not out of respect for our farming interest, but out of fear of Brussels.”

He wrote that as a result of the framework, the UK is being “forced into dynamic alignment” with the EU because of the need for Northern Ireland to accept the same sanitary standards as the bloc.

He added: “British cheesemakers and carmakers now face swingeing and job-destroying tariffs, and millions of consumers will have to absorb yet higher prices; and all because — wait for it — our government will not allow British people to eat so much as a morsel of Canadian beef.”