Transport head says UK in store for Brexit traffic chaos ‘like we have never experienced’

Buchanan had been fronting an emergency meeting of the Common’s business and industrial strategy committee when he said a no-deal Brexit would unleash more chaos at Britain’s ports than what is already being seen at Dover.

Hundreds of lorries are stranded in Dover port after France decided to close its border to hauliers coming from Britain.

This was an attempt to halt the spread of a new strain of coronavirus into mainland Europe recently discovered in England.

“There are hundreds of hundreds of lorries all over Kent now. 1,500 perhaps at Manston,” Buchanan told MPs.

“This is a huge problem. This is a supply chain disruption that is far more widespread and is going to be very difficult to recover from.”

Buchanan explained that in the past hauliers could bypass port closures by travelling to another point of entry but said that this time round the problem was “of a different order of magnitude”. 

“In the context of Brexit, and what is coming from January 1, this is the start of a very, very serious supply chain disruption, of the likes we probably have never experienced,” he cautioned. 

“I’d just like to say that again, this is going to be of the likes we have never experienced.”

Buchanan also hit at ministers for understating lorry queues Kent.

“We heard about some numbers last night and we were very disappointed because of the way it was portrayed – it was seeking to minimise the nature of the problem.

“This is a very serious problem and whether you’ve actually moved a few hundred lorries from one place to another, it’s irrelevant.”