UK-only passport lines at airports will generate longer queues for Britons at home and abroad, prime minister Theresa May has been warned.
Home secretary Sajid Javid is reportedly thought to be resisting May’s plans to create such lanes after Brexit.
No 10 is searching for eye-catching ways to make Britain look different after Brexit next March when the “standstill” transition is due to be in place.
Little will change visibly between next April and December 2020 when the transition period, due to be agreed as part of the withdrawal treaty, is due to end.
But The Times reports today that some senior Downing Street figures would like to introduce UK-only passport queues.
It is said to be attractive to some in No 10 because it is simple and easy to explain to the public. It is likely to be hugely complicated, though, and potentially self-defeating.
About two thirds of passengers on incoming flights are British and there is little capacity in airport arrival zones or sufficient staffing to implement the idea.
Airport operators have told the newspaper that they have been assured “100%” that the issue of British-only queues has never been seriously discussed with the government and all the conversations had been about maintaining the status quo.
Airports’ bigger concern is cutting queues for all by having more e-gates and extra staff. They said that the plan for UK-only lines sounded like a diversion and a solution to nothing.
Lucy Moreton, general-secretary of the Immigration Service Union, said: “It could be done. You would need to change the signage and then create additional lanes by moving the elastic barriers. It would mean longer queues, probably for everybody, unless they increase staffing.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We’ll use the opportunity of Brexit to take back control of our borders and strengthen border security.”