UK admits extra £330m a year in charges for post-Brexit animal and plant imports

Labour's Stella Creasy elicits confirmation of higher charges to firms, which some say risk further fuelling food inflation

The government has admitted it will cost businesses 330m each year in additional charges when new post-Brexit border controls on animal and plant products imported from the European Union are implemented next year.

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, a minister of state in the Cabinet Office, confirmed the estimated annual cost adding that the UK needs tighter border controls to protect our international reputation" in a letter to Labour MP Stella Creasy, the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe.