More than £4 billion was spent by the government preparing for Brexit - with at least £100 million attributed to costs incurred in Kent.

The National Audit Office said the figure included spending on staff, external advice and advertising.

It was based on information provided by 18 government departments on the cost of the preparation activities carried out between June 2016 and January 2020.

The NAO highlighted Operation Brock - a key contingency scheme for the M20 - saying it had cost the taxpayer £69m.

It also highlighted losses incurred by the Department for Transport connected to contracts offered to ferry companies to increase capacity in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

In 2018-19, the DfT reported “fruitless payments” of £50m of costs to ferry companies and a £33m cost to Eurotunnel, which arose from EU Exit contingency work.

There was also a loss of £8.9m incurred for a dedicated direct channel for high-priority medical supplies in the event of disruption at borders following a no-deal exit.

Other costs were related to funding to councils, which totalled £109m - with Kent County Council receiving £29m for Brexit preparations.

Maidstone Conservative county councillor Paul Cooper said that while he accepted the need to spend money preparing for Brexit, the key question was what deal the UK came out with.

Speaking on the Paul On Politics show on KMTV, he said: “Clearly the way we leave will affect the economic benefits; If we don't get a sensible free trading agreement, then yes it does become a problem.”

But he criticised Highways England over Operation Brock: “They shoved it out and left it for months; all that was needed was for there to be a plan. Wasting money causing disruption and congestion - it was totally unnecessary.”

Medway Labour councillor Alex Paterson said: “This is money for nothing; we have actually got nothing to show for this; this is just money for the phoney war. We actually have not left and are still bound by the EU rules. Anyone who says there is nothing round the corner, frankly we haven't seen anything yet.”

Maidstone Liberal Democrat councillor David Naghi said he was gobsmacked by the costs associated with Operation Brock: “If this was a private company they would say ‘we are going to put this in place once we know it is needed’ not keep practising and then take it away.”

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