British travellers could get own passport lines

BRITISH travellers will have their own dedicated queues at UK airports under plans being drawn up by Michael Gove, The Mail on Sunday understands.

Mr Gove, Boris Johnson’s No Deal planning supremo, has ordered Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to examine the feasibility of creating separate queues for British citizens in time for the first day of Brexit. The move was vetoed on cost grounds last year by Sajid Javid when he was Home Secretary – but it is seen by Mr Johnson and Mr Gove as one of the most visible symbols and tangible benefits of quitting the EU.

The decision to kick-start the process was taken last week by Mr Gove’s Daily Operations Committee – known in Whitehall as the XO – which meets in a room in the basement of the Cabinet Office every weekday to cover all aspects of the Government’s preparations for leaving.

It concluded that the committee’s secretariat should ‘schedule a discussion, led by the Transport Secretary, on introducing UK-only queues at airports’.

The move comes amid growing concerns within Downing Street that Brussels will force British travellers into slower lanes with all other non-EU citizens when they go to the Continent.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has vowed Brexit – which is currently set to fall at 11pm UK time on October 31 – will mark the formal end of the EU’s freedom of movement policy, despite opposition from officials who warned of potential chaos that could see Britons stranded on the Continent.

Mr Javid had argued it would cost too much for Border staff to man separate desks in hotspots such as Heathrow.

But cost fears have been brushed aside by Mr Johnson, who has boosted the UK’s budget for No Deal preparations by an extra £2.1 billion.