Brexit pressure mounts on government as border queues build

Dover has been hit by disruption, while the Australia trade deal has been picked apart. Adam Forrest looks at whether post-Brexit woes could influence the government’s stance on protocol talks

Lorries queue outside the port of Dover in Kent on 18 January (PA)

Shared battle scars seem to count for little these days. A very strange week at Westminster saw top Tory Brexiteers turn on Boris Johnson. Steve Baker – the self-identified “Brexit hardman” – said it appeared to be “checkmate” for the PM, while fellow “Brexit Spartan” Andrew Bridgen said Mr Johnson had lost all authority and predicted his imminent demise.

Mr Johnson’s former champions may wish to think of Brexit as a long-past victory, a fight now receding into political history. But the economic consequences of our exit from the EU are only just becoming clear, and the government is under growing pressure to sort out at least some of the unravelling mess.

Lorry drivers are blaming the huge queues building up at the port of Dover “entirely” on post-Brexit controls, with one telling The Independent that delays and disruption on both sides of the border are bound to get worse when imports and exports pick up again in February.

Meanwhile, port chiefs have urged the government to hold talks with the EU on ways to ease the impact of biometric checks that are set to come in later in 2022 and could cause “disastrous” disruption to traffic and trade.

Officials may be keeping their fingers crossed that businesses and logistics bosses will soon get on top of the extra red tape, but there are plenty of other issues piling up.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss has faced a backlash from wine producers during her trip to Australia, amid complaints that any benefits from the recently agreed trade deal will be more than wiped out by UK taxes on alcohol.

Winemakers aren’t the only ones picking apart the fine details. Earlier this week, Tory backbencher Neil Hudson dissected the deal’s lack of detailed safeguard mechanisms – warning that it could see British farmers undercut by cheap Australian meat imports. The MP claimed the Australia deal was as “one-sided” as the Ashes cricket series. Ouch.

Ms Truss is said to be aiming for an agreement with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol by the end of February. The foreign secretary has “charmed” the bloc’s negotiators and “markedly improved atmospherics” surrounding the talks, according to one leading Brussels-watcher.

Perhaps the cabinet minister has calculated that it’s not the best time to trigger Article 16 and unleash a messy trade war with the EU – given the growing concern over disruption at the border, gaps on the supermarket shelves, and the looming cost-of-living crisis.

Ms Truss may also have calculated that she has little to gain from more trading chaos in the weeks ahead. If Mr Johnson’s woes continue, she will need all the time she can get for a Tory leadership contest. Which will surely be chaotic enough.