But the Brexit opportunities minister stuck to the government line that the French, not Brexit, had caused the recent delays in a radio interview on Tuesday. LBC radio repeated a claim from 2018 when it insisted that “no checks will be needed at Dover” and was clear that “the delays will not be in Dover, they will be in Calais”. Rees-Mogg blamed Paris for the “French delays” seen recently before being asked if he would apologize for being wrong. “Yes, of course I got it wrong, but I got it wrong for the right reason, if I can put it that way,” he said. “The point I made was that the only delays would be caused by the French if they decided not to allow the British to pass freely. They decided to do it.” Rees-Mogg went on to say that Brits might think “going to Portugal is more fun because the Portuguese want us to go and the French are difficult”. “Why should we go and spend our hard-earned money in France if the French don’t want us?” he asked, before insisting he wasn’t calling for a boycott. Authorities in Dover declared a critical incident as the gridlock meant delays of up to five to six hours and volunteer staff distributing water to bumper-to-bumper traffic. Both the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel, which operates cross-Channel rail and car transport, said the delays were caused by the extra checks required on British passports. According to the Le Touquet Agreement between France and the United Kingdom, French border control personnel are located on the British side of the English Channel. Before Brexit, when there was free movement for EU nationals, officials only had to check passports for identity purposes, match people’s faces in cars to their passports and ensure the document was up to date. Since Brexit, different travel rules apply to all third country nationals. British nationals can still travel visa-free to the EU, but only for a period of 90 days in any 180-day period. This means that French border officials must stamp each passport to record entry and exit and also check the passport for previous stamps to ensure the 90-day limit has not been breached. The Port of Dover said two weekends ago that checks took an average of 90 seconds compared to 48 seconds before Brexit. The authorities admitted there was also an understaffing problem for hours on Friday 22 July, but this only lasted two hours. The Port of Dover had increased the number of passport control booths from six to nine in June to prepare for the July 22 weekend. It was the weekend after schools in England let out for the summer holidays, traditionally the busiest days for tourist travel. Last weekend, Dover carried 142,000 passengers – a fivefold increase on this time last year. The Eurotunnel carried around 100,000 passengers. The extra passport checks combined with the huge spike in traffic led to queues of up to six hours before normal travel times resumed on Monday 25 July. The travel industry is warning that delays could be even worse for travelers after the EU introduces biometric checks including facial recognition and fingerprints next summer under the so-called Entry Exit System (EES).
