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Response to Brian from Charlie in the Times today.
Today, Article 50 is triggered. In two years we will leave the European Union. It is vital that we are ready on day one for every eventuality. The most important preparations of all will be at the Dover frontline. Dover is the gateway and the guardian of the nation. The port handles £120 billion of trade every year.
Last summer we had a taster of what will come if we are not ready. Miles of traffic queued back from Dover. 250,000 people were caught up in the chaos. Families with young children were trapped in sweltering heat with no food, water or toilet facilities. And in the summer of 2015 it was even worse, with queues of 4,600 lorries stretching back 30 miles. It cost the UK economy £1 billion.
Ever the optimist, Michel Barnier, Europe’s chief Brexit negotiator, says this chaos will reoccur if Britain has no deal with the EU by March 2019. Others have warned of traffic jams along the M25 as far back as Stansted airport. There are dire warnings of customs gridlock choking UK trade. The predicted bottlenecks will harm the car industry in the Midlands, farmers in Wales and the distilleries of Scotland. Yet it doesn’t have to be this way.
Over the past few months I’ve been working with business and industry experts on both sides of the Channel. We’ve been looking at how to keep traffic moving through Dover and Calais. There is real enthusiasm that we can boost trade after Brexit – both with Europe and across the globe.
Yet in order to make this work we need greater and faster investment in the roads to Dover. Vital infrastructure, such as lorry parks off the M20, must be built and ready. The A2 must be dualled and the Lower Thames Crossing taken forward.
And we must invest in the Port of Dover itself. Over the past few years we have handed over tens of millions to strengthen Calais. It’s now time to put Britain, and Britain’s border, first. We must invest at the Dover frontline.
Of course, the best-case scenario is that in two years’ time we strike a good deal with the EU. I hope that we do – and I believe that Theresa May is the only leader who can deliver it. Yet we have to be ready if the EU won’t or can’t do a deal. We must do all we can to maintain a seamless flow of trade.
The government must know how vital this is — not just to Dover, not just to Kent, but to the whole nation. It will be no good for the Northern Powerhouse if we have queues at Dover, stopping goods from getting past London. The Midlands Engine will conk out if it cannot get the components it needs on time. Gridlock in Dover would gridlock the UK economy too.
That is why it must be a key national priority that trade continues to flow freely through the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel. It matters to the whole of the United Kingdom – and indeed to Europe. Brexit must work for the good of us all.
Charlie Elphicke is Conservative MP for Dover and Deal