Boris Johnson plans mass Covid testing of lorry drivers to reopen ports

Boris Johnson is drawing up contingency plans to test all lorry drivers taking goods across the Channel in order to bring an end to the disruption at Britain's ports.

Ministers are understood to be preparing "infrastructure" to allow thousands of truckers to be tested for Covid-19 after France insisted hauliers should be cleared as negative before entering the country.

On Monday night, Mr Johnson made a personal appeal to Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to reopen the French border after ports were closed in response to the news that a newly-discovered mutant coronavirus strain was "out of control" in London and the South-East.

The Prime Minister told a Downing Street press conference he believed the risk of freight drivers passing on the new and highly infectious strain of Covid was very low.

He said: "I want to stress that we in the UK fully understand the anxieties of our friends about Covid, their anxieties about the new variant.

"But it's also true that we believe the risks of transmission by a solitary driver sitting alone in the cab are really very low, and so we hope to make progress as fast as we possibly can."

However, The Telegraph understands the Government is working on increasing testing capacity in Kent if Mr Macron refuses to back down.

A Government source said: "Testing is time-consuming and sets a precedent for post [Brexit] transition. We are trying to avoid it but we are doing the work to get testing capacity and the infrastructure down to Kent in case we need it."

The closure of ports on Sunday forced around 6,000 lorries to be diverted from Dover, with a queue of up to 500 trucks waiting on the motorway outside the town.

The Department for Transport closed the M20 on Monday night in order to activate Operation Brock, its Brexit contraflow traffic plan to avoid chaos on the roads, and opened the disused Manston airport, in Kent, for overspill lorries.

Highways England has said there were 900 lorries parked on the M20 at 6pm on Monday, contrary to the Prime Minister's claim there were less than a quarter of this figure.

Meanwhile, panic buying saw supermarket shelves emptying shoppers queueing from dawn as Sainsbury's warned of a salad crisis with shortages of  lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflower, broccoli and citrus fruit if the ban is not lifted in the next few days.

Nearly 50 countries across five continents have cut all passenger air travel and transport ties with the UK in the past 48 hours because of the rapid spread of the new Covid strain. Ministers moved to quell fears that the disruption posed a risk to the supply of Covid vaccines.

It is thought France wants hauliers to have the gold standard PCR Covid tests – which cost up to £150 but take between 24 hours and 48 hours for results, delaying attempts to get lorries moving – to clear the backlog and to allow drivers into France before Christmas.

Mr Macron told a Cabinet meeting by video on Monday: "We are looking at systematic testing upon arrival."

It is thought about 6,000 tests a day would be needed and would be most likely to be administered at the overspill parking site at Manston.

On Monday, Labour urged the Government to use spare capacity in the coronavirus testing system for drivers. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said ministers needed to stop "dithering" and take decisive action to deal with the "chaos" at the UK border.

The situation is complicated by the French hauliers' union, which wants the tests to be conducted in France.

Vanessa Ibarlucea, of France's National Federation of Road Transport said: "It takes 48 hours to get an appointment and another 48 hours to get the results of a PCR test. So our drivers will not be home with their families in time for December 24. Our drivers have been abandoned in a foreign country."

Toyota at Burnaston, Derbyshire, shut down a day early for Christmas because of the border closures. The firm operates on a four-hour "just in time" parts delivery system.

Mr Johnson and Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, claimed the crisis showed that the UK was ready for a no trade deal Brexit on December 31 after the contingency travel plans reduced Monday morning's queue of 500 lorries in Kent to 174.

"Some of the reason why we've not seen big problems in Kent today is because actually the transition period work that's been going on for very many months and years is coming to fruition a few weeks earlier... than previously stated," said Mr Shapps.

"But it does mean that the measures like having Manston available, like having the moveable barrier available [in Operation Brock] including welfare for the hauliers – it's all in place. So to a large extent it has shown that we are ready [for a no-deal Brexit]."

The French EU commissioner, Thierry Breton, said France could have helped the UK tackle the new Covid strain if not for Brexit. If Britain "had chosen to remain in the European Union... today we could have helped them", he told BFM Business.

On Monday, EU leaders held crisis talks to agree a co-ordinated response after more than 10 European countries imposed flight bans affecting some 250,000 Britons. France was the only country to impose restrictions on freight as well as passenger flights.

The Irish Government announced that at least two consular flights for Irish residents stranded in Britain following the ban on flights into Ireland from the UK were being arranged for Tuesday evening. Simon Coveney, the foreign affairs minister, and Eamon Ryan, the transport minister, said at least one flight would depart from London.

The chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, Richard Burnett, said the disruption could cause problems with "fresh food supply" in the run-up to Christmas.

But Mr Shapps dismissed concerns about the impact of the travel ban on supplies of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which is manufactured in Belgium, because container freight was unaffected.