LONDON: Britain will soon face ‘empty supermarket shelves’ if militant French strikers continue inflicting chaos on Calais, UK port bosses warned last night.
The chief executive of the Port of Dover appealed for Government help as French union leaders threatened new stoppages this week.
Tim Waggott said the disruption caused by the last fortnight of strike action in Calais had cost the UK economy £1billion.
A group of migrants took advantage of the disruption to try to storm the Channel Tunnel terminal last week, causing further delays.
MPs yesterday heard the situation is so bad that UK-bound lorry drivers are afraid to check their lorries for fear of finding violent would-be illegal immigrants.
In an open letter, Mr Waggott said £100billion a year of trade comes through the Port of Dover.
He added: ‘How could you equate the importance of keeping such valuable trade moving with the incredible disruption caused at a major international gateway – Calais – by the mob rule of a small number of aggrieved militant Frenchmen?
‘Unless supermarkets with empty shelves and assembly lines with vital parts missing are to become acceptable, then clearly under no circumstance should the recent situation be allowed to happen again.
‘This is not an immigration issue … This is a debate about our trading island nation maintaining the economic recovery.’
Firebrand French trade union boss Eric Vercoutre said he was ready to bring Calais ‘to a standstill’ again to try to save up to 600 jobs under threat from Eurotunnel’s disposal of its ferry arm MyFerryLink.
Mr Waggott argued that ‘resilience’ was needed to ensure passenger and freight travel could be maintained.
