talks are continuing to try to end the
french ban on people coming from the uk
following the weekend's announcement
about the spread of a new coronavirus
variant
the french government says it will
announce measures today that will allow
transport links with britain to resume
and trade to flow across the channel
again boris johnson and president macron
spoke yesterday following france's
decision to close its border
after growing concern about the new
variant lori drivers and kent had to
spend a
second night sleeping in their vehicles
waiting for the border with france to
reopen
yesterday the prime minister said there
were 1
500 lorries waiting in kent to cross
back to the continent
but the home secretary has confirmed
this figure is actually over that
operation brock which was initially
developed to ease post-brexit congestion
has now been implemented
the eu has coordinated its response
member states
pressing for uk arrivals to be tested
for the virus
before entering their countries
retailers say there's plenty of food in
the supply chain and supermarkets for
christmas
however they warn that unless the french
border is reopened today
there will be disruption to supplies of
fresh produce
by the end of the week the uk's chief
scientific advisor is warning this new
variant is now
everywhere and that more areas may need
to enter
tier four sir patrick valance says
lockdown measures need to be increased
in some places in due course he said
not reduced and northern ireland's
executive has voted against introducing
a travel plan from england scotland and
wales
we do have some pictures for you look at
that you can see the long
lorry cues from this morning they are
stacked up for a mile upon
mile on the m20 towards dover so let's
bring you right up to date with what is
happening
right there we can take you to our
correspondent simon jones
simon how is it there at the moment
well the lorries may well be stacked up
on the m20 but they're also
parked up here in the center of the town
look just behind me this is a slip road
there are lorries all the way down there
this is one of the main lanes leading to
the port of dover and the lorries have
parked up there too
so in terms of the official figures from
the government they
told us this morning that around 650
lauriers were parked up on the m20
motorway leading to euro tunnel and also
to the
port and then they said another 873 were
parked up
at a big airfield and now defunct
airfield in manson in
kent but the reality is those are the
ones who are in the official
parking spaces but here if you drive
around
over people have parked up anywhere they
can
any spot they can find right along the
seafront that is full of vans and
lorries the car parks
are full of vans too so the official
figure difficult to put an estimate on
it but
certainly lots and lots of people are
caught up in this disruption
and simon what is the expectation there
of
a decision between the eu particularly
and boris johnson we know those talks
are taking place at the moment
yeah we know that there have been
conversations between the british prime
minister boris johnson and his french
counterpart
emmanuel macron they are said to have
been going well but we're waiting to
hear a definitive
outcome of those but what we're
expecting is potentially france may say
the border can reopen but what they'll
demand is that anyone wanting to cross
from the uk
over to france will have to have a
negative corona virus test
and that will be a huge logistical
operation because when you're talking
about
hundreds potentially even thousands of
lorry drivers being caught up in all
this that is
thousands of tests that will need to be
done and often these tests
the results may take a day or two to
come through
so potentially drivers here even if they
can get tested
may not get back in time for christmas
and if you're parked up on the road like
this lorry drivers are saying to us well
where
can you get a test it's potentially the
government here may introduce tests at
the official manson airport
site where there are hundreds of drivers
there but for others they're just asking
how is this going to happen and how will
they get this negative test
how will they get home simon thanks for
joining us from dover
well our correspondent gavin lee is in
brussels for us with more on france's
decision to close the border
they've got to keep to this 48-hour
period which is ending at midnight
tonight so there's no chance that
suddenly
we're being briefed from the french side
there will be an early out
an early end to this um blockage they
are saying well clement bourne who's the
deputy europe minister is saying that
there will be an announcement today on
how they
stop these measures how they start to
reopen the border one thing that they've
said with
certainty is that they will be asking
for
covid test rapid covert test and proof
of negative testing
before people leave so that means for
for freight drivers in a france and
is it possible to do it as quick as
tomorrow i think that's a big question
at the moment and i know that the
british side is still talking to the
french
um we've just heard actually of a french
head of supermarkets at one of the big
supermarket chain system you
uh dominique sheldor talking on french
tv saying that they've got
trucks stuck on the uk side of the
border with all sorts of
fish and seasonal seafood produce
language deen scallops monkfish for
example he's saying which
he said there will be definite shortages
in french supermarkets
ahead of christmas we're looking at
shortages tomorrow we're looking at
shortages
on christmas eve as well and he is
saying desperately that the borders need
to be reopened so
the point is ben the pressure isn't just
on the uk side at the moment that
french industry is putting pressure on
its own government too
let's join our political correspondent
ian watson who is in westminster for us
ian what are you hearing about when we
might get an announcement
on what's happening at dover well we may
get an announcement later today uh just
after
uh lunch time but that doesn't mean that
because there's a movement in in talks
there's going to be any movement
of freight uh certainly from what i'm
hearing from
government sources is that they don't
think they'll be able to put in place
any testing facilities by today they're
not absolutely ruling it out but they
think that would be
difficult to achieve they need to get a
plan to get
uh holiers tested and that's likely to
take too at least
until tomorrow then the question that's
been raised in the negotiations i think
has been touched upon
by uh gavin and simon as well is what
kind of tests are being required is it
the rapid lateral flow tests which might
miss
uh the new variant or some cases of the
new
covered variant or is it going to be the
more traditional tests where results can
take between
24 and 48 hours now that's been a matter
of negotiation we don't yet
know um what has been agreed if indeed
anything has with the
with the french government um if they're
going for the
longer tests then clearly it's going to
take longer to clear the uh
clear the backlog but even if they go
for more rapid testing
the road holiers association has been
saying uh this morning that
with the new customs arrangements that
have to be put in place do or no deal
with the european union
uh from the 1st of january then there
are likely to be some delays with the
new customs procedures in any case and
then if you start
adding on to that the burden of holly
has been tested
then you could see not just delays but
of course again problems
in delivering fresh produce so there are
real issues here for the government to
try and solve
both political with the french and
logistical on the basis of those
negotiations so yes an announcement
likely today but probably no movement of
any freight out of the country until at
least tomorrow ian we're hearing a call
took place last night between
boris johnson and ursula vonderline some
of those issues probably came up but do
we have any other details
of what they discussed phishing for
instance well what's interesting about
this call is
actually um when we're getting
disagreements between the two sides over
a future trade deal
there's a degree of disagreement over
the call because an eu
official has confirmed that a call took
place between israel vandalism the eu
commission president and boris johnson
last night but downing streets
are saying that they are not aware of
the call
it's been described elsewhere as a
secret call but i think what is
interesting is that
if the two leaders are in discussions
then
clearly they are striving to get a
brexit deal over the line before the
deadline
on december the 31st i would be
surprised if fishing wasn't
being discussed there have been reports
from brussels that
the uk has tabled a new offer on
fishing to try to break the deadlock
some of the things that have been
put into the public domain for example
perhaps a five-year transition period
when new arrangements could be phased in
uh again whitehall sources government
sources here making it clear they do not
recognize the specifics
of that nonetheless um it would look as
though both sides are trying to move
towards each other
on one of the major stumbling blocks to
getting a deal
but we're also being told of course
there are some other issues
which are still outstanding the issues
for example of uh
how much the government can uh subsidize
businesses industries in each country
whether
this is fair between uh the eu in the uk
the uk side certainly felt it was
imbalanced against the uk so there'll be
other things to sort out
and the kind of steer that we're getting
at the moment is that the talks are
going to continue
but they may have to have a christmas
break and resume if there was going to
be a deal then mps would be dragged back
here to westminster to ratify it on
either the 29th
or the 30th of december but at the
moment that deal is not yet
there but i think it is interesting that
we are getting
discussions at a very high level at this
crucial stage
ian thank you so much