Chris Grayling has been 'banned' from Calais, after being accused of showing “disrespect” to the French port over Brexit .

The port’s chairman, Jean-Marc Puissesseau told the Telegraph the Tory Transport Secretary had given no warning of government plans to “bypass” Calais in a no-deal scenario.

Mr Grayling notoriously handed the ‘no deal’ scenario contract to Seaborne Freight, a ferry company which does not have any ferries.

Branding the Tory Transport Secretary “failing Grayling”, Mr Puissesseau said he had given assurances that the port was ready to cope with increased customs checks.

He said: “Mr Grayling came to us in November and asked us if we would be ready.

“We told him 'yes', though we did not know as much as we know today. He did not tell us that he wanted to reduce the activity [at Calais].”

(Image: Getty Images)

He added: “It is not fair at all, it is completely disrespectful. I don’t want to see him again."

A new ‘traffic light’ system is being prepared to keep the port running smoothly after Brexit - Green for lorries with the right paperwork, red for lorries with no paperwork and orange for drivers who are not sure.

He joked: “I have heard he is ‘failing Grayling'...He will have to have a declaration if he comes to Calais. He will have to go through the orange lane.”

Responding to the news, Best for Britain supporter Virendra Sharma MP said: "Surely this is peak Chris Grayling - only this time he's gone international.



"All he needs to do now is release a statement blaming everyone else and his predictable path of chaos will be complete."

The Government has awarded an £800,000 contract to a law firm for advice in case Eurotunnel takes legal action over the impact of Brexit.

Show more

Lawyers at Slaughter and May will provide support to the Department for Transport in the "highly likely" event that Eurotunnel pursues litigation.

In January, Eurotunnel accused the Government of "distortionary and anti-competitive" behaviour over the award of ferry contracts worth more than £100m to provide additional cross-Channel capacity in the case of a no-deal Brexit.