Home Secretary Suella Braverman has denied that Brexit is to blame for the 14-hour queues at the Port of Dover over the Easter weekend, insisting that gridlock will not be a regular

occurrence. She claimed that it was “unfair” to blame post-Brexit passport checks for the chaos as Easter holidaymakers got stuck in misery at the border with France. The port, which has declared a critical incident, said delays were “due to lengthy French border processes and sheer volume,” with ferry companies receiving 15% more coach bookings for Easter than expected.

The delays have been partly blamed on bad weather affecting ferry crossings and a higher-than-expected surge in bookings. However, travel experts have also pointed to the inspection and stamping over each individual passport after Brexit. Dover chief executive Doug Bannister said the post-Brexit checks had made processing “more challenging”.

Brexit-backing Tory MP Natalie Elphicke blamed the problems on the French, while the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael criticised Braverman’s denial of Brexit issues, saying it shows she “is in complete denial about the impact of the Conservative government’s botched deal with Europe on our borders”.

However, Braverman downplayed fears of regular delays at Dover. She claimed that despite recurring gridlock problems at the port in 2021 and 2022, “things have been very smooth, operating very smoothly at the border” in recent years. She added: “It’s a very busy time of year and there’s been some bad weather. They are positive this will be eased very soon – I just urge people to have patience.”

P&O ferries apologised for the wait times and said the wait time at the entrance on Sunday morning was “approximately 4 to 5 hours”. The port was hoping to clear the backlog by lunchtime on Sunday, but some travellers were held up for 14 hours. Simon Calder, The Independent’s travel correspondent, said processing times since Brexit had risen sharply – saying border checks were “gumming up” at border control.

Mr Bannister added: “The difference of living in a post-Brexit environment means that every passport needs to be checked before a vehicle or passenger can pass through to the EU through France. So it does make processing more challenging.” Photo by ChiralJon, Wikimedia commons.