Will take ‘days’ to clear Dover chaos, says minister
It will “take a few days” to clear the lorry queues at Dover, according to housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.
Last night transport Secretary Grant Shapps said an “agreement” had been reached with the French Government on travel across the Channel after around 3,000 lorries have backed up at Dover in the last 48 hours.
The agreement means that drivers will be tested for coronavirus before crossing the border. The military and NHS Test and Trace teams are to establish multiple testing sites in Kent.
Despite efforts to ease the jam it will “take a few days” to clear the Dover queues, Jenrick said this morning, although he hoped to see some vehicles cross the Channel today.
“Well I hope that this morning, you’ll see people and HGVs crossing the Channel at the short straits,” he told Sky News.
“We’re putting in place the infrastructure. So the armed forces will be doing that [Covid testing] in the first instance to help us to set that up and to get through some of the backlog that you’ve seen.”
France shut its borders with the UK at the weekend after hearing of a new, more infectious variant of Covid-19 that has widely circulated in London and the southeast of England.