BBC Economics Editor Faisal Islam used old pictures of busy ports to hype up a Dover Port Brexit transition story.
One of the BBC News stories on their website several days ago had the headline “Problems Grow at UK Ports With Backlogs and Delays“. This was paired with a picture of lorries and trucks in long queues. The political news and gossip website Guido Fawkes described this as an example of “fake news” by the BBC.
The image was taken by Andrew Aitchison and shows the Eastern Dock of the Port of Dover, on the 29th of September 2020. This was taken almost 3 months before the Brexit transition period ended on the 31st December 2020. The disruption and queues in that picture was due to strikes at French ports. It had nothing to do with the new trade deal.
https://twitter.com/darrengrimes_/status/1346139267353997312
On BBC Reality Check, the BBC’s Simon Jones stated while in Dover that: “In many ways, it’s been business as usual at the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel. A steady stream of lorries has been boarding ferries and trains to France.”
The BBC has since changed the title of the article to “Brexit: Firms warn of problems as new EU trade rules kick in”.
They have also removed the name of the writer and significantly changed the content of the article. The image has also been changed to a simple lorry passing through customs. You can read The Point News’ coverage of Dover traffic here.
