Delays at the Port of the Dover caused havoc this weekend, with ferry passengers stuck waiting for hours at the start of the Easter holidays.
A critical incident was declared on Friday as the queues at the border built up, with a backlog of coaches waiting at the port across the weekend.
The problems continued into Sunday, with debate swirling around the causes of the delays – and how much Brexit is a factor.
How long are the queues at Dover today?
Extra ferry crossings were run overnight on Saturday, but on Sunday morning, the port estimated travellers could still face waits of up to eight hours.
A Port of Dover spokesman said: “The additional sailings have assisted in clearing some of the traffic, although currently both DFDS and P&O have two full lanes of coaches in the port before French border controls, with a processing time of about 4.5 hours.
“P&O have some coaches waiting at the cruise terminal and DFDS have some at service stations in Kent.
“Once coaches are processed in an operator’s lane, more are being sent to the port. Currently, the estimated total time is six to eight hours dwell time.”
The port’s spokesman said they hoped to clear the queues by lunchtime on Sunday as passengers continue to set off on Easter breaks.
P&O Ferries apologised to customers, saying some will face waits of four to five hours, while the port said food and drink was provided to coach passengers in the queues.
On Saturday, passenger Rosie Pearson described the travel scenes in Dover as “carnage” as she was stuck for 16 hours with her husband and two teenagers.
Why are there delays at Dover Port?
When the port declared a critical incident, it said the delays were “due to lengthy French border processes and sheer volume”.
People stuck in queues at the Port told i that on Saturday, there were only a handful of French border staff working, despite frequent busy periods over the Easter school holidays.
It was suggested that post-Brexit border checks have worsened issues at the port, with British passengers, who were previously nodded through at busy periods, now requiring a detailed passport inspection.
Dough Bannister, chief executive of Port of Dover, told Sky News: “The difference of being in a post-Brexit environment means that every passport needs to be checked before a vehicle or passenger can cross into the European Union through France. It does make processing more challenging.”
However, the Home Secretary Suella Braverman rejected suggestions that Brexit could be the cause of delays.
She told the Sky News Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme that it would not be fair to view the delays as “an adverse effect of Brexit”.
Ms Braverman said: “What I would say is at acute times when there is a lot of pressure crossing the Channel, whether that’s on the tunnel or ferries, then I think that there’s always going to be a back-up and I just urge everybody to be a bit patient while the ferry companies work their way through the backlog.”
She also downplayed any fears that delays at Dover could become a regular occurrence that risks ruining school holiday plans, suggesting that in general “things have been operating very smoothly at the border”.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, she added: “I don’t think this is the state of affairs to go forward. I think we have got a particular combination of factors that have occurred at this point in time.
“This will ease. I ask everybody to check their journey times carefully, but it is a busy time of year.”
Shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said “a range of factors” caused the delays, but claimed the Government had not planned for what was going to happen post-Brexit.
She told Sophy Ridge that ministers had “known for a very long time that they needed to make sure that there were resources in place to deal with additional paperwork checks”.
Ms Nandy added: “The point is not whether we left the European Union. The point was that we left with a Government that made big promises and once again didn’t deliver.”
