Prime Minister Boris Johnson says all food and medical supplies are moving as normal between Europe and UK amid fears of shortages after French restrictions due to the emergence of the new strain of Covid
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson has moved to calm fears about the freezing of some freight travelling between the UK and EU, saying that the vital flow of food and medicine continues unabated.
The emergence of a new strain of Covid in England and Wales saw the French government imposed restrictions on UK freight travelling to France accompanied with a driver.
Work is underway to set up protocols so that such trade can continue within the next 48 hours to prevent the emergence of the new strain on the continent of Europe, similarly dozens of countries have stopped flights arriving from the UK as well.
He added that the Covid vaccination is continuing with 500,000 people now having received it.
Mr Johnson said: “It is vital to stress that these delays only affect human handled freight and that is only 20 per cent of the total freight arriving from or departing to the European continent which means the vast majority of food and medical supplies are coming and going as normal.
“The government has been preparing for a long time for exactly this type of scenario, we have activated our long-prepared plans so we have managed to reduce the number of lorries waiting from 500 to 170.
“And of course we are working with our friends across the channel to unblock trade as fast as possible and the government at all levels is communicating with Paris, I have just spoken with President Macron.
“We had a very good call, we understand each other’s positions and we want to resolve these problems as fast as possible to allow freight traffic to resume between the UK and France.”
The stoppage in freight moving has also triggered fears amid a looming no-deal Brexit as the Prime Minister has refused so far to consider an extension or period of grace to the transition period beyond January 1.
He said: “The position is unchanged, there are problems, it is vital that everybody understand that it is vital that the UK is able to control its own laws completely and also that we have got to be able to control our own fisheries.
“It remains the case that WTO terms would be more than satisfactory for the UK and we can certainly cope with any difficulties in our way – not that we don’t want a deal but prosper mightily remains an extremely good description of life January 1.”
