Jacob Rees-Mogg admitted he was wrong to say there would be no delays at the port of Dover caused by the UK leaving the EU.
But the Brexit options minister backed the government’s position that the French, not Brexit, had caused the recent delays in a radio interview on Tuesday.
LBC radio repeated a claim from 2018 when he insisted there would be “no need for checks at Dover” and it was clear “the delays won’t be at Dover, they’ll be at Calais”.
Rees-Mogg blamed Paris for the “delays created by France” he had witnessed recently, before being asked if he would apologize for being wrong.
“Yes, of course I was wrong, but I was wrong for the right reason, if I may say so,” he said.
“I meant that the only delays would be caused by the French if they decided not to allow the British to pass freely. They have decided to do this.”
Rees-Mogg went on to suggest that the British might believe that “going to Portugal is more fun because the Portuguese want us to go and the French are difficult”.
“Why should we go and spend our hard-earned money in France if the French don’t want us?” he asked, before insisting he was not calling for a boycott.
Authorities in Dover have declared a critical incident as congestion means delays of up to five to six hours and volunteer staff handing out water in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Both the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel, which operates rail and road rail transport across the Channel, said the delays were caused by the extra checks required on British passports.
Under the Le Touquet Agreement between France and the United Kingdom, French border control personnel are stationed on the British side of the Channel.
Before Brexit, when there was freedom of movement for EU citizens, officials only had to check passports for identity purposes, comparing the faces of people in cars to their passports and ensuring the document was dated.
After Brexit, different travel rules apply to all third-country nationals.
British citizens can still travel visa-free to the EU, but only for a period of 90 days in any 180-day period.
This means that French border control officers must stamp each passport to record entry and exit, and also check the passport for previous stamps to ensure that the 90-day limit has not been breached.
The Port of Dover said two weekends ago that this had resulted in checks taking an average of 90 seconds, compared to 48 seconds before Brexit.
Authorities admitted there was also an understaffing problem for hours on Friday, July 22, but it only lasted about two hours.
The Port of Dover increased the number of passport control booths from six to nine in June to prepare for the July 22 weekend. It was the weekend after schools in England broke up for the summer holidays, traditionally the busiest days for tourist travel.
Dover carried 142,000 passengers last weekend – a fivefold increase on this time last year. The Eurotunnel carries around 100,000 passengers.
The extra passport checks combined with the huge surge in traffic led to queues of up to six hours before travel times returned to normal on Monday 25 July.
The travel industry is warning that delays could be even worse for travelers after the EU introduces biometric controls, including facial recognition and fingerprints, next summer under the so-called Entry and Exit System (EES).
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