New EU border IT system risks long delays – Cameron

Eurotunnel bosses said it would add “five to seven” minutes to crossings but assured no long car queues as extra lanes and technology will help smooth the process.

There were hopes that an app being developed by the EU could enable some of the registration to be done from home, but it is not expected to be ready for use in October.

Lord Cameron said the UK government’s powers to improve the scheme were limited as it is an EU scheme.

“The best thing we can do is prepare as much as we possibly can,” he said.

“But we have to cope with it because we’re a third country.”

The foreign secretary made the comments while the European Scrutiny Committee questioned him on the negotiations with the EU on a post-Brexit deal for Gibraltar.

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory situated on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula, where it shares a border with Spain.

It is self-governing in all areas except defence and foreign policy.

The UK’s decision to leave the EU in 2016, and thereby end freedom of movement between the two, created problems in Gibraltar, where thousands of people cross the border with Spain every day to work, shop or visit family.

After months of talks, a deal to ease travel and cut checks at Gibraltar’s border with Spain is believed to be near.

Lord Cameron said he was working towards a “fluid” border with Spain, but insisted any deal would not “diminish in any way” the UK’s sovereignty over Gibraltar.