Brexit: Ministers to spend £300m to bring in emergency food and medicine supplies after no deal

‘Invitation to tender’ issued in a beefed-up version of Chris Grayling’s failed contracts with ferry companies, which ended in humiliation

Ministers are preparing to spend £300m to bring in emergency food and medicine supplies after a no-deal Brexit – including through airlifts.

A £300m “invitation to tender” has been issued in a beefed-up version of Chris Grayling’s notorious contracts with ferry companies, which ended in humiliation for the government.

Some of the supplies will be flown in on trucks loaded onto cargo planes, in addition to the use of trains and ships, new transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said.

The tender requires companies to deliver goods that are “identified by the government as being critical to the preservation of human and animal welfare and/or national security”.

As well as routes from the EU, new contracts are also being sought for the delivery of supplies “between Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.

The move is the latest example of Boris Johnson preparing the ground for the crash-out Brexit he is threatening on 31 October, if the EU refuses to concede a different exit deal.

But it has echoes of Mr Grayling’s botched attempt to ensure supplies, which cost taxpayers £83m in cancellation fees and a legal payout – having included a contract with a firm that had no ferries.

Anna McMorrin, a Labour supporter of the People’s Vote campaign, attacked the move as another example of Brexit being “the direct opposite of what Leave campaigners were promising”.

“Throwing away hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on potentially airlifting and shipping in emergency supplies is just the latest absurdity.

“To impose this on the country without the public’s consent would be a democratic outrage.”

Mr Shapps denied a report that that all £300m would be spent on airlifting supplies, saying rail and shipping would be used mainly.

He said: “If we do leave without a deal, we’ll be ready for it. And your description of £300m of airlifting is completely incorrect, I just want to quash that.

“It is actually a contract, actually an invitation to tender, but not spending a penny at this stage at all.”

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Mr Shapps added: We may never need it, and that is my goal. But if we do, my goal is also to be fully prepared.”

The move also underlines how the cost of no-deal preparations is soaring, after Michael Gove, the cabinet office minister, announced a bailout fund to prop up businesses at risk of collapse.

Emergency supply routes are being lined up because of official predictions of immediate and enormous queues at UK ports, because of the need for new checks on goods.

The tender, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, seeks “aircraft that can be used for the provision of capacity for the transportation of freight vehicles” into the UK after 31 October.

The government “is seeking to put in place a framework of operators of vessels, trains or aircraft that can be used for the provision of capacity for the transportation of freight vehicles (meaning wheeled goods vehicles including vans, trucks, lorries, HGVs and other equivalents) or wheeled trailers or semi-trailers between the UK and the EEA and/or between Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.