Read more: Kemi Badenoch opens door to pensions triple lock change in future – as she says ‘as of now’ no change<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n ![\"Kemi](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/719829\")
<\/p>\n
Kemi Badenoch told LBC the UK needs to do \u201ceverything we can to reduce trade barriers\u201d.<\/p>\n
Picture:
\nAlamy<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cWith the trade tariffs that President Trump is putting on the EU, the EU should be looking to reduce trade barriers with the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms Badenoch recalled her time as Business Secretary, and said the time to \u201cre-visit\u201d a deal with the EU is \u201cthis year\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the time to start removing barriers and this that\u2019s what the government should be focused on- there\u2019s no reason to make things as complicated as they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
LBC has been told the new post-Brexit inspection system brought in a year ago is causing \u201cchaos\u201d at the borders \u2014 slamming growers and importers with soaring costs, delays, and a looming threat of higher prices for consumers.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Nigel Jenney, CEO of the Fresh Food Consortium told us: \u201cDelays of up to 20 hours at Border Control Posts (BCPs) are already being reported, and there\u2019s no system to prioritise fresh food and its costing the industry – the figures are enormous.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a small business we\u2019re talking costs of \u00a340,000 a year, an average sized business – \u00a3300,000 and for big business over a million – these just the fees they\u2019re having to pay to government to have these checks done.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately for UK consumers – we\u2019re predicting they will have to pay an extra \u00a3200m a year to help cover these costs.<\/p>\n
In response to Kemi Badenoch\u2019s comments, he told LBC: \u201cThat particular government installed all of these processes much to the disappointment of industry when it proactively offered much more effective solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf these inspections continue to move forward into the fruit and vegetable sector as expected this year, there will be empty shelves from time to time – without question.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not being listened to – but our European partners are listening – and are saying \u2018enough is enough\u2019 – we don\u2019t want to trade with the UK anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Davidson, Financial Director of Tom Brown Wholesale Limited, told LBC he\u2019s seen costs soar over the past year because of checks being done on the flowers they import from Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at extra \u00a3225,000 we\u2019ve had to pay out at a time when everything is going up, employer\u2019s National Insurance contributions, rent has gone up – it\u2019s a drain on the business now and we\u2019re having to pass that cost on to our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told LBC \u201cfrequent delays\u201d are also having a huge impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s got worse in last six months; the delays have ramped up and more and more product is being stopped at the border.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example on Mother\u2019s Day we had delivery delays of over three hours and couldn\u2019t get flowers to shops until 4pm which was too late and impacted our sales.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to our findings – a spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: \u201cWe are working closely with traders to facilitate movement of goods at the border and will continue to engage with industry to minimise disruption whilst protecting UK biosecurity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will seek to negotiate a veterinary agreement with the EU to prevent unnecessary border checks, boost trade and deliver benefits to businesses and consumers in the UK and the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"30 April 2025, 08:20 | Updated: 30 April 2025, 08:52 Tim Chambers, the owner of WB Chambers Farms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-62436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114425958676763475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}