UK border staff not checking passports as closely as French, official says

The UK is "not controlling" its borders to the same extent as France, a union official for UK Border Force workers has said, amid questions over the cause of widespread delays at Dover.

Lucy Moreton, professional officer for the ISU union representing Border Force officers, said delays of up to 17 hours at Dover over the weekend were predominantly a result of Brexit.

Moreton told Radio 4's Today programme that French officials are now required to inspect every single passport of people travelling to the country from the UK, which is the main cause of the problem.

She said: "The biggest element is that all the transitional regulations, post-Brexit, have gone and the French border control authorities will now inspect and stamp every single passport because we can no longer spend more than a total of 90 days in France during any one year."

Moreton said that, previously, officials may have checked passports and waved passengers through, but now they have to check each individual one to confirm the number of days spent in France.

She said this was particularly cumbersome for vehicles taking multiple passengers, such as coaches.

"Before, they would have looked at a passport, seen it was a UK passport, and waved you through. But now everybody has to get off the coach and have their passport inspected and stamped, then get back on," she said.

Moreton said that "other elements" - including bad weather and more coaches arriving than expected - may have contributed to delays, but that the bureaucracy of the post-Brexit system was the leading cause of the miles-long queues to enter the Kent port.

Moreton also outlined that queues in France were not as bad as in the UK because border staff were not as stringent as their French counterparts.

"The UK authorities haven’t changed their approach so your passport will be checked but it will not be stamped," she said. "That was a decision taken by the UK government at the time that we were going to continue with this light-touch control."

Asked if the UK is not controlling its borders as much as the EU, Moreton replied: "Not to the extent the French are at the moment, no."

The Port of Dover declared a "critical incident" on Friday as long queues hit the terminal at the start of the Easter holidays.

Moreton said if similar hold-ups were to be avoided, the French border control and Port of Dover authorities would need to reach an agreement.

"This is ultimately [for them] to sort out," she said, adding that French authorities needed more space post-Brexit to cope with the amount of passports needing to be checke

Read more

Brexit to blame for Dover chaos hitting Easter trips, say senior Tories (Evening Standard, 3 min read)

Brexit ‘has had an impact’ on Dover queues says Starmer (PA Media, 3 min read)

Simon Calder says Brexit is to blame for Dover chaos (The Independent, 1 min read)

Sir Keir Starmer waded into the row on Monday when he told LBC Radio: “Of course Brexit has had an impact – there are more checks to be done.

“Once we left [the EU], it was obvious that what had to happen at the border would change.

“Yet again we have got to the first big holiday of the year and we have got queues, to the great frustration of many families trying to get out to have a well-earned holiday."

He said the government needs to "get a grip".

However, home secretary Suella Braverman rejected the theory that Brexit was to blame.

On Sunday, in an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News, she said it would not be fair to view the delays as “an adverse effect of Brexit”.