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The British government announced today it is hiring 1,000 new border staff as part of a massive recruitment drive to cope with Brexit.

The drastic move was announced by Home Secretary Amber Rudd - who confirmed Brexit preparation is costing more than £450million over two years.

She told MPs on the Home Affairs Committee: “I can announce today that we are launching a national advertising campaign for another thousand Border Force staff in order to improve the quality of our border and prepare specifically for Brexit.”

It will bring to 1,300 the number of extra people drafted in after 300 were announced last October.

However, a Home Office official later clarified that although 1,300 people were being recruited, some would simply replace staff who were leaving through natural wastage.

The official was not able to say the exact number of extra positions being created due to Brexit.

“We think it’s going to be enough,” claimed the Home Secretary.

“We have done a careful analysis. If we need more we will make that decision as we go forward.”

(Image: Getty)

The extra guards “will be in place across the country”, she said, adding: “We need to make sure that every area is made secure.”

Officials confirmed £60million had already been spent on 1,200 staff for "support around European casework" in 2017/18.

Their main aim is to register more than 3million EU citizens who live in the UK for "settled status" that will allow them to stay after December 2020.

Another £395million has been allocated for 2018/19 - the largest single departmental allocation from the Chancellor.

Around £150million of that would be spent strengthening the border and £170million would be spent on the development of the settled status scheme.

Labour committee member Stephen Doughty slammed the figure - saying it could have funded more than 9,000 police officers.

He tweeted: "Home Secretary admits to me a whopping extra £395 million has been given by Treasury to Home Office to cope with Brexit for next year.

"That’s now approaching nearly half a £billion before we’ve even left, when police budgets massively under pressure. Shocking."

(Image: PA)

The settled status scheme is set to be introduced in a voluntary form by the end of this year.

Ms Rudd also confessed Britain's plans to pass new immigration laws to control migration have been pushed back.

She told MPs: "The timing for the immigration bill has been delayed because the key element of protecting EU citizens in their rights in the UK has now been achieved through the withdrawal agreement which is going to come before parliament later this year.

"So the urgency that we had before with the white paper, with the immigration bill, has to a certain extent been removed."