Trucks loaded with food and medicines could be flown into Britain on cargo planes as part of ministers' plan to beat queues at Dover after a no-deal Brexit.

New tendering documents for a £300 million no-deal contract show that the Department for Transport wants firms to supply planes to air-lift vital supplies if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal.

Civil servants want a company to provide "aircraft that can be used for the provision of capacity for the transportation of freight vehicles" into the UK after October 31.

The contract asks for companies who can ensure that goods that are "identified by the Government as being critical to the preservation of human and animal welfare and/or national security" continue to come into the UK.

It says the Government "is seeking to put in place a framework of operators of vessels, trains or aircraft that can be used for the provision of capacity for the transportation of freight vehicles (meaning wheeled goods vehicles including vans, trucks, lorries, HGVs and other equivalents) or wheeled trailers or semi-trailers ... between the UK and the EEA and/or between Great Britain and Northern Ireland".