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France closed its border to the arrivals of people and trucks from Great Britain, closing one of the most important commercial arteries with continental Europe.
As families and truck drivers tried to circumvent travel bans to return home in time for Christmas, Britain’s second-largest supermarket chain, Sainsbury’s, said gaps would start to appear on shelves within days if transport links were not quickly reestablished with continental Europe.
“If nothing changes, we will start to see gaps in the coming days in lettuce, some salad greens, cauliflower, broccoli and citrus, all of which are imported from the mainland at this time of year,” Sainsbury’s said.
Scottish seafood producers said they had tons of perishable goods stranded on the roads due to the closure of the French border. The disruption in Britain will also ruin supplies to Ireland.
“No driver wants to deliver to the UK right now, so the UK will see its freight supply deplete,” said France’s national federation for road transport FNTR.
The global alarm was reflected in the financial markets.
European stocks tumbled, with travel and leisure stocks hit the hardest; British Airways owner IAG and easyJet fell around 8%, while Air France KLM lost around 7%.
The British pound fell 2.5% against the dollar and was on track for its biggest one-day drop since March, while the yield on two-year British government bonds hit a record low.
British tabloids lamented the crisis.
“The sick man of Europe,” read the Daily Mirror newspaper on its front page alongside a photo of Johnson, while the Sun newspaper said “The French show no merci.”
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