10 real-life Brexit consequences that have already happened since we left the EU
| Published date | 11 February 2021 |
| Date | 11 February 2021 |
| Publication title | Daily Mirror, The: Web Edition Articles (London, England) |
And while we haven’t seen the worst-case scenario of 7,000-truck-long queues in Kent, our departure hasn’t been smooth either.
Shellfish businesses are facing bankruptcy thanks to a tangle of red tape after we “took back control”.
Small firms and gifts have been slapped with huge charges for moving goods across the Channel.
Meanwhile border staff had to be withdrawn in Northern Ireland following loyalist threats about the Brexit “border” in the Irish Sea.
The crisis means the UK is already asking for “grace periods” -agreed just weeks ago -to be extended to prevent a blockage of food to Belfast.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, who will meet his EU counterpart Maros Sefcovic in London tonight, admitted: “We all know that when an aeroplane takes off, that’s the point when you sometimes get that increased level of turbulence.
“But then eventually you reach a cruising altitude and the crew tell you to take your seatbelts off, and enjoy a gin and tonic and some peanuts.
"We’re not at the gin and tonic and peanuts stage yet, but I’m confident we will be.”
But are these really just teething issues, as Michael Gove suggests Or are they problems that are here to stay
Here are 10 real-life consequences of our EU exit so far -plus a few things that haven’t gone as badly as expected.
1. Fishing communities are facing ruin
Fishermen who export to the EU have been battered by red tape since new rules took force on January 1.
Fish and meat are much more complex than most exports because they need to meet rules on “products of animal origin”.
Exporters must fill out an Export Health Certificate and have their goods checked at an EU Border Control Post.
Chilled mince and sausages are banned from export completely -so it’s the ultra-perishable fishing industry that’s in the spotlight.
The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations say the first consignments to Calais hit a “brick wall of bureaucracy”.
And Scottish Food and Drink shared grim pictures of an almost empty Peterhead fish market in Aberdeenshire in January.
The government has opened a £23m compensation fund for those hit, worth up to £100,000 per fisherman. But industry chiefs say the rules are baffling and it’ll be hard for boat owners to prove their losses off, say, the back of a phone call.
James Withers, of Scottish Food and Drink, told Parliament the £23m is “massively welcome” but the seafood business has lost around £1million a day -“you can quickly work out how soon that runs out”.
Separately Boris Johnson has pledged £100m to help the industry, but Jimmy Buchan of the Scottish Seafood Association said last week: "We are now in week 5 and no one knows who or where that is going to."
2. Some shellfish exports to the EU are banned completely
As if this wasn’t bad enough, some shellfish exports are banned completely due to a legal dispute between the UK and EU.
Ministers confirmed there is a total ban on certain types of mollusc from ‘Class B’ waters around the UK being sent to the EU.
Waters around Wales and South West England are affected, with exports of mussels, oysters, clams and cockles all hit.
Environment Secretary George Eustice insisted the EU had promised no such ban would apply in September 2019 -only to then impose it after Brexit took force.
He said the EU have “changed their position” and there was “no legal justification for a bar on this trade”, adding: “We do believe the EU have simply made an error in the interpretation of the law”.
But SNP MP Deidre Brock said “Will the government accept that the fault and the blame lie with them -it’s because they made a bks of Brexit.”
One firm in Bridlington, Baron Shellfish, is shutting...
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