Severe delays as businesses try to get goods into Britain before a potential no-deal Brexit on 1 January
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The delays in crossing the Channel are causing acute problems in the UK. Honda and Jaguar have had to halt production temporarily because of parts shortages, and it emerged on Friday that Ikea had been besieged by complaints because of what it called “operational challenges” as shipments of its flatpack furniture are held up at clogged ports.
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Eurotunnel said it believed delays on the British side would continue for the next three weeks. Its contingencies centre on the worst-case scenario of a no-deal Brexit involving up to 7,000 lorries queuing in Kent.
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The delays have been matched by long tailbacks at the Eurotunnel, caused partly by a reduction in the number of ferries because of Covid and the number of empty lorries returning to the continent after their stockpiling deliveries. Queues sometimes stretching back at least five miles have formed almost every day for the past two weeks.
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The drive to stockpile flows from the fact that customs, regulatory and agrifood checks will be introduced deal or no deal because the UK is leaving the single market. Further disruption is expected over the weekend in Kent with a live test of Operation Brock, the no-deal traffic contingency plan for the M20, put in place on Friday night.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/12/brexit-stockpiling-causing-10-mile-tailbacks-calais

Liam Jesson
@jesson_liam

Brexit hasn’t even happened yet and this was the queue for Dover - Calais sailings this morning ⁦@simoncoveney⁩ ⁦@BorisJohnson⁩ #BrexitShambles #BrexitReality ⁦@Nigel_Farage⁩

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