Chris Grayling scraps No Deal Brexit ferry plans because we’re not leaving the EU on time
TAXPAYERS face a staggering £50million bill after Transport Secretary Chris Grayling cancelled No Deal ferry contracts after just one month.
The Department for Transport is cancelling the extra routes run by DFDS and Brittany Ferries now to avoid bigger losses later this summer.
The six-month deals were signed to prevent a shortage of medicines and food in the event a disastrous No Deal caused chaos at Calais.
Officials at the DfT have spent the past month struggling to sell the “extra capacity” back to the market to fill the boats and recover the cash.
The move comes just days after P&O Ferries threatened to take the Government to court over its £33million payout to Eurotunnel over the No Deal contracts.
Eurotunnel sued the DfT on the grounds that it hadn’t been consulted over whether it wanted to bid for No Deal work.
P&O claims the payout is state aid.
Chris Grayling awarded £103million-worth of contracts in December – but was left humiliated when he had to scrap a deal with Seaborne Freight to ship goods into Ramsgate because it didn’t have any boats.
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Best for Britain supporter, Labour MP Virendra Sharma said: “The man with the reverse Midas touch strikes again. Much more of surprise than Chris Grayling’s most recent failure is the fact he’s still got a job.
“When you mix an intractable problem like Brexit with an incompetent Secretary of State, you’re setting yourself up for a big fall. Millions of pounds have been wasted as a result.”
Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald added: “Chris Grayling and the ferry contracts will for evermore be a case study in ministerial incompetence.”
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