THE ferry firm at the heart of a £14 million Brexit scandal has denied reports that it will not be operational by the time the UK leaves the EU.
Seaborne Freight rejected a report in the Financial Times which suggested senior government officials had concluded that the company would not be able to operate a ferry route between Ramsgate in England and Ostend in Belgium.
According to the BBC, Ramsgate has not had a regular ferry service since 2013 and needs to be dredged to allow services to start operating.
Department for Transport bosses awarded the fledgling business the £14m contract despite the ferry firm’s lack of ferries.
SNP MP Joanna Cherry said she believes the UK Government has serious legal questions to answer over its decision.
The contract was handed out under Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, which allows the Government to award a contract without a tender process in cases of “extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable”.
READ MORE: SNP MP piles on pressure over Brexit ferry firm revelations
Cherry said: “Clearly a no-deal Brexit is not a circumstance unforeseen by the Government and, even if it was, it would be a circumstance brought about by the Government.”
She called on the UK to publish legal advice and to “outline what unforeseeable event led the Government to pursue this legal route given its original claim has now been rebuffed”.
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