Trucks full of food and medicine to be air-lifted into Britain under £300m no deal plan Under the plans, around 12 companies will be selected to fly planes filled with supplies into Britain on an ad hoc basis.

Trucks packed with food and medicine are to be flown into the UK under the government’s plans for a no-deal Brexit.

The Department for Transport has raised concerns that queues at Dover will lead to delays in providing critical medical supplies to patients across the country.

According to The Sunday Telegraph ministers have put together a £300 million no-deal contract which will see firms supply planes to air-lift vital supplies.

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£300 million contract

Ministers will reportedly ask companies to provide “aircraft that can be used for the provision of capacity for the transportation of freight vehicles”.

The contract states that those companies will supply goods “identified by the Government as being critical to the preservation of human and animal welfare and/or national security”.

A Department for Transport source told The Sunday Telegraph: “Quite rightly, the Government is not being prescriptive about how this is delivered, and is leaving it to the commercial market to set out how to best achieve this outcome.

“We welcome bids from all operators who think they can meet the requirements in the invitation to tender – and we encourage all parties to carefully read the procurement requirements.”

Under the terms of the contract, around 12 companies will be selected as suppliers and asked to carry out the freight work on an ad hoc basis.

Failed ferry plan

The proposed system will partly replace former Transport Secretary Chris Grayling’s failed plan to contract private ferries to bring supplies to the UK in the event of no deal.

Mr Grayling ran up an £80m bill ahead of the original Brexit deadline in March, after awarding Seaborne Freight the contract, only to cancel it when it emerged they had never run a ferry service before and did not own any ships.

Last month, then-Cabinet Office minister David Lidington said the government was working on plans to “support continuity of supply of medicines and medical products.”

He added: “This will be an urgent contingency measure for products requiring urgent delivery, within a 24-48 hour time frame, if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.”

Medicine ‘prioritised’

Health secretary Matt Hancock said back in January that medicine “will be prioritised” over food if a no-deal Brexit affects supply chains.

Mr Hancock said there has been “very significant” planning to avoid medicine shortages if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.



But he added that if it comes to it, “of course medicines should get priority over food”.

Mr Hancock said around half of the medicine imported to the UK has “some touch point” with the EU, and the proportion of food is “much smaller”.

The UK grows 61 per cent of its food, according to a 2017 report by the National Farming Union.

i has contacted the Department for Transport for comment.