UK in Covid freight ban talks with France as Cobra set to meet over crisis

The government is in talks with France to end a ban on freight set to cause chaos at UK ports, Downing Street has said, with ministers ruling out a recall of parliament despite the impact of a new variant of coronavirus.

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, was in contact with his French counterpart over the 48-hour ban imposed on freight hauliers from Britain, in the hope of deciding a way forward “in the next few hours”, Boris Johnson’s spokesman said.

Johnson is to chair a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergencies committee later on Monday, and will then host a No 10 press conference to update the nation.

The government is putting in place contingency plans to deal with an expected queue of lorries at Channel ports after France barred freight movements due to the rapid spread in England of a variant of Covid-19 which spreads more rapidly.

France also announced a travel ban on passengers arriving from the UK, alongside countries including Denmark, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Turkey and Canada.

London and much of the south and east of England were placed in a new, lockdown-like tier 4 of restrictions from Sunday, with people ordered to not travel elsewhere in the UK.

But Downing Street played down the need to extend the restrictions, indicating ministers believe the new regime will be enough to curb the spread of the new strain.

Asked about the freight ban, Johnson’s spokesman said the UK was “working incredibly closely with our international partners” to end the disruption, adding: “The French transport minister is trying to establish a solid health protocol in the next few hours to ensure that movement from the UK can resume. We’re in close contact with the French to try and get this resolved.”

Downing Street urged people to not panic buy amid warnings of shortages of some food items in supermarkets, saying the UK had “resilient supply chains” for food.

Asked if MPs could be recalled, the spokesman said this would only be done to ratify any Brexit deal: “If we need to recall parliament for the purposes of Brexit, we will.”

Asked why the tier 4 measures were not being pushed out across England, the spokesman indicated the minister felt enough was being done to prevent the spread of the variant Covid.

“I would point to the fact that we’ve been clear that people shouldn’t be travelling out of tier 4 areas, and I would point to the changes that we have made in terms of tier 4,” he said. “We’re being clear that people should remain at home and limit human interaction.”

Asked why household mixing for those in tiers 1, 2 and 3 would still be allowed on Christmas Day, he said: “I would point to the introduction of tier 4, which is designed specifically to try and drive the transmission of the variant Covid down. We’ve been clear that we don’t want people to leave tier 4 areas.”