€120m in totally unused border facilities is the latest bill for the monumental waste that was Brexit
Hundreds of millions have been wasted on Brexit border checks that either don't work or were never used. It's a fitting monument to a failure to plan.
As a microcosm for the waste, self-sabotage and basic failure to plan that has been implementing Brexit, it is hard to beat the expensive, endlessly-delayed and ultimately pointless border checks on goods and people imposed by both the UK and EU.
Data published by the UK’s National Audit Office has revealed that the post-Brexit Conservative governments spent more than £100m (€120m) on border check facilities that were never used.
Five of the seven “inland border facilities” in England and Wales never got to operational stage because the Tories decided that since food coming from the EU would be the same high standard as it was before Brexit there was no point having extra checks.
In total, the National Audit Office reckons that implementing Brexit cost £4.7bn (€5.6bn).
Much of that taxpayer cash was spent on systems, many of which, if Andy Burnham’s government stays in power for a few years, will soon be obsolete.
And the remaining facilities that have been used will now be mothballed in a few months under the new EU-UK agreement on food and drink products that aligns regulation between London and Brussels.
Elsewhere, freedom of information requests have revealed that Eurotunnel spent €50m on Brexit checks for trucks and €90m on changes for passengers, including an entry and exit system that the French authorities have never used.
Benjamin Fox is our trade and geopolitics editor. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He is based in Nairobi, Kenya, although he often reports from London.
