"After Brexit We Can Run Our Borders On Trust"

22 October 2017, 09:10

Henry Newman cited Switzerland's borders as a future model for the UK outside of the EU, speaking to Andrew Castle this morning.

Borders and customs officials could struggle to deal with a 360% rise in customs declarations and 230% rise immigration checks, the spending watchdog has warned.

Staffing shortages, manual processes and a reliance on "outdated technology" are all cited by the National Audit Office in a report casting doubt over readiness at the border for the UK's official exit from the EU.

Andrew Castle spoke to Henry Newman, Director of the Open Europe think tank, about how the UK can remedy these issues.

Newman said: "Switzerland is not in the European Union's customs union, so if you drive from Switzerland into France or the other neighbouring countries you're crossing a customs border.

"The EU has actually managed to deal with that perfectly well, there's essentially an invisible border and there's a lot of trust-based checking.

"Now if the EU can offer that to Switzerland, why can't they offer that to the UK? There's a danger of the EU looking very punitive here."

Watch the full clip above.