Michael Gove admits businesses will face ‘inevitable’ checks at the border after Brexit
MICHAEL Gove had admitted businesses will face ‘inevitable’ checks at the border after Brexit.
Expected to play a key role in planning for life outside the EU, the senior minister insisted "almost everybody" would face extra barriers.
Mr Gove made the shock admission while speaking to traders at event hosted by the Government's Border Delivery Group.
He said: “The UK will be outside the single market and outside the customs union, so we will have to be ready for the customs procedures and regulatory checks that will inevitably follow.
"As a result of that we will be in a stronger position, not just to make sure that our economy succeeds outside the European Union but that we are in a position to take advantage of new trading relationships with the rest of the world.
"You have to accept we will need some friction. We will minimise it, but it is an inevitability of our departure."
He added: "I don’t underestimate the fact that this is a significant change, but we have time now to make that change."
The British Retail Consortium bashed the announcement, and urged the government to make it clear what plans are in place.
The group's director of food and sustainability Andrew Opie said: "Without the necessary infrastructure up and running from day one, consumers in the UK will see significant disruption, particularly in the availability of fresh fruit and vegetables.
"Staff will need to be hired and trained to carry out these checks on the thousands of lorries that enter the UK every day.
"IT systems must be adapted and tested. Holding facilities for lorries, particularly at Dover and Folkestone, will need to be constructed.
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"It is not enough to announce checks will take place, we must see plans now as to how this will be possible in practice, or it will be consumers who suffer on January 1."
The Freight Transport Association's UK policy director Elizabeth de Jong added: “We are naturally disappointed that the promise of frictionless trade has been replaced with a promise that trade will be as seamless as possible but not until 2025.”
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