Brexit is delivering more problems for the government. Downing Street is now facing yet another delay to post-Brexit border checks on goods entering Britain from the EU. British business leaders, especially those dependent on imports and exports have warned these new border checks would be a supply chain disaster.

Ministers are now considering whether to push back full checks on EU imports for the fourth time, which were supposed to come into effect on July 1. The previous three pushbacks were part of a drive to tackle trade friction and the crisis in the cost of living, which was looming months ago. Checks were first delayed at borders in June 2020, followed by further extensions in March 2021 and again in September 2021.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit opportunities minister, said this week that one advantage of leaving the EU would be to allow Britain to apply only loose checks on imports. Clearly, this is not the case according to those impacted in industry. Boris Johnson has not yet made a firm decision on the matter but he is being urged to extend the so-called “grace period” for EU imports by Rees-Mogg and former Brexit minister Lord David Frost.

Currently, goods arriving from the EU are not subject to safety and security declarations, while food and plant products are not physically checked. According to some officials, it appears that some senior figures in Number 10 are “sympathetic” to the idea of further delays beyond July for the new checks.

The route to the EU is different. British exports have been subjected to the full scrutiny of EU border checks since the first day of Brexit in January 2020.

James Withers, chief executive of Scotland Food and Drink, said any decision to delay would anger many exporters. “There is a logic given the ripples in the supply chain created by the Ukraine crisis, but there’s no doubt this will stick in the throat of a lot of exporters who are now 15 months into navigating a tsunami of paperwork that our EU competitors are not facing.”

Just three weeks ago, the government assured business leaders they were ready for July 1st. Back in September last year, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, Lord Frost, said: “Businesses will now have more time to prepare for these controls which will be phased in throughout 2022. The government remains on track to deliver the new systems, infrastructure and resourcing required.”