Brexit Minister unable to explain why ’emergency’ loophole was used to give £13.8m contract to ferry firm with no ferries Seaborne Freight was awarded the cash in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit

The decision to award almost £14 million of government cash to a ferry company which has yet to run a single service remains a mystery, after a government minister dodged the question no less than three times.

It was revealed last week that Seaborne Freight had been awarded the shipping contract in the case of a ‘no deal Brexit’, as part of contingency plans to ease pressure on the port of Dover.

However, the contract wasn’t awarded by a competitive tender process, with the government instead using rules which come into play when “unforeseen events” cause an “extreme emergency”.

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The firm, which plans to run services between Ramsgate in Kent and Osten in Belgium from March, also came under fire after it emerged it doesn’t currently own any ferries, and has yet to run a single service.

It was later revealed they had copied their terms and conditions from both a food delivery website and an online clothes boutique.

‘Have you asked the Transport Minister?’

While quizzing Chris Heaton-Harris MP, part of the government’s Brexit department, the SNP’s Joanna Cherry also called for him to explain how the process could have been forced by “unforeseen events”.

In the session he confirmed his own department has employed staff to plan for a ‘no-deal’ Brexit since its inception two years.

“A range of operators were invited to tender, including new entrants into the market,” he told the committee.

“Seaborne is one of the companies we have awarded contracts too. Due diligence was conducted, and everything, I believe, was in order.”

Using Section 32 of the Public Contract Regulations also meant that the government did not have to publish the tender before it was selected.

‘It’s a very simple question minister, can you answer it?’

Despite Cherry’s repeatedly asking the “very simple question”, Heaton-Harris would only repeat that a range of operators were contacted and that due diligence had taken place.

When asked, he also refuted the idea that ‘no deal’ was an “unforeseen circumstance”, adding that their “priority focus” has been to “try and get that deal over the line”.

After refusing to outline the reasoning behind the deal three further times, Cherry asked who else might be able to shed some light on the situation.

“I’m not sure if anybody asked the Secretary of State for Transport yesterday, in the urgent question?”.

In fact, Sherry herself has tabled the question, with Chris Grayling only saying that planning for all eventualities was a matter of “extreme urgency” according to advice the government had received.

“Well, there you go,” finished Heaton-Harris.

A Department for Transport spokesman previous said that the contract was awarded in the “full knowledge that Seaborne Freight is a new shipping provider”, with Grayling defending the decision to support what he called a “start-up business”.

However, local politicians have also raised concerns about the award, saying it was a “perplexing choice”.

Ferries have not run from Ramsgate since 2013, when the previous provider collapsed.