James O'Brien's Eye-Opening Call: "My Business Will Fold If UK Leaves Customs Union"

26 October 2018, 13:59 | Updated: 26 October 2018, 14:01

The director of an international haulage company has told James O'Brien that his company will go under if the UK leaves the Customs Union.

John Shirley, the founder of the freight forwarder company in Dover, explained that the additional customs checks and travel disruption could cause permanent damage to his business.

He revealed that just 1% of lorries currently need customs checks, but that area of the port is already full. If we leave the EU with no deal, every lorry will need to be checked and it will "grind to a halt".

Speaking to James O'Brien, he said: "We have people who are reliant on our services. Their trucks will just be sitting here because a hard border is a hard border. There's no getting around it.

"We've had technical notices reminding people that the freedom we've got at the moment will disappear. We'll have to do customs."

Asked if there was anything the government could do, short of calling the whole thing off, that would help his business run on 30th March next year, he responded: "Nothing, no. Not with the idea of leaving the Customs Union.

"We will be [in trouble]. And it won't just be us, it will be our customers as well. It's a really heavy, heavy blow if this goes ahead."