Suella Braverman has denied Brexit is responsible for delays at the port of

Dover after

t of pressure work their way through the backlog.”

Suella Braverman. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

However, in an interview with the Observer a year ago, the port’s chief
executive, Doug Bannister, admitted Brexit was causing longer processing
times at the border.
He said: “There will be improvements which are made. People will get slicker
at reading passports, get slicker at lodging paperwork and checking
paperwork. But we are in a different trading regime.”

Later, speaking on the Laura Kuenssberg programme on BBC One, Braverman

denied the situation at Dover would repeat itself and blamed “bad weather”.

She said: “I really sympathise with families and schoolchildren who are trying
to get to France for their Easter holidays. Nobody wants to be waiting hours
overnight at Dover in a coach.”

When asked if it was something that would happen every school holiday,
Braverman \

Also on Sky News, she said: “There are clearly a range of factors that have
gone into the delays here, and we’ve seen them before, but the government has
known for a very long time that they needed to make sure that there were
resources in place to deal with additional paperwork checks.
“The point is not whether we left the European Union or not. The point was
that we left with a government that made big promises and once again didn’t
deliver.

“And I really feel for the families that are trying to get away for an Easter
break, people who have been caught up in this chaos, people whose livelihoods
are threatened.

“It didn’t need to be this way.

“And if the government got a grip, got down to brass tacks and started doing
their actual job, all these things could be avoided.”
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