Thread by @faisalislam

Important Commons Committee on border delays:

Road Haulage Assoc: 1000s lorries waiting “catastrophic & unacceptable”...“no confidence, never had confidence drivers will be looked after” need hygiene facilities/food, like France.
Manston mixing could cause “worse Covid problems”

RHA - how we treat foreign hauliers so badly is a “shame on this country”... “we are creating a hostile environment” for foreign hauliers, fining them for going into Kent when they “have nowhere else to go” - need to be v careful, they wont come

Food and drink fed: “For the Scottish seafood industry millions of pounds are going down the drain...” no options “short of opening a lobster shack on the M20 and selling to the truckers”

RHA on Govt stat re only a fifth of trade “I would be surprised if it was less than 90% of fresh food coming from Europe is on the Dover straits... the “20%” is a misleading number”

British Retail consortium reassure on current stocks in shops, saying you will get pics of queues as shops are Covid-compliant & tier 4 people having to make new plans.. but stocks in the country... shelving issues could emerge after 27th Dec though they say, if block continues

Food & Drink Federation boss Wright, not too happy with manner of Government’s announcement “late on a Saturday” that caused everybody, “not just the French” to react at great speed

My colleague @BBCSangita in Dover witnessed a few dozen lorry drivers sounding horns and marching up to police to protest at the delays and lack of equipment/ facilities - grim situation compounded by lack of food facilities due to tier 4 lockdown

Great work being done here hot meals prepared by Kent’s Sikh community Gravesend gurdwara, distributed to stranded truckers... in general and esp in coming weeks, the nation very reliant on those currently stuck in the M20/ Manston rain:

https://twitter.com/khalsa_aid/status/1341442293165924353?s=21

French transport minister announces border reopening subject to negative tests.... thanks Shapps

https://twitter.com/djebbari_jb/status/1341446727094702087

Transport Secretary:

https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1341448832182345729?s=21