Peers have revealed the dire consequences facing the county if no Brexit deal is reached - with one container lorry taking more than an hour to process.

The warnings, which suggest huge queues heading to the port could swamp the county's roads, are the latest to face ministers and have come from an inquiry by a cross-party group in the House of Lords examining what the consequences of leaving the EU without a deal could be.

Their report says additional customs checks under ‘no deal’ would hit businesses who relied on being able to transport goods without the need to be checked.

It warns additional customs checks on just one container lorry from a non-EU country could take more than an hour to complete and the port has no capacity to park HGVs that could require checks.

“The introduction of new customs checks at the border under ‘no deal’ would cause delays, disrupting highly integrated supply chains. In the case of ‘no deal’, customs paperwork would need to be checked and some goods would be subject to additional time-consuming regulatory checks.”

While the warnings are not dissimilar to others that have been made, they underline the potential for disruption that could occur after the official leaving date next March.

Peers say that on a visit to the Port of Dover, they were told the use of technology was “unlikely to reduce this processing time significantly.”

Port bosses made clear that it lacked the capacity to carry out checks

One was quoted as saying: “There is no space in the port for additional checks: no space for more examination sheds, no space for new checkpoints or barriers, and no space for lorries to park awaiting clearance.

"Any new checks, for customs or any other purpose, must therefore be conducted away from the port.”

Baroness Verma, chair of the EU external affairs sub-committee, said: “With only six months to go until Brexit the clock really is ticking on a mutually acceptable customs agreement.

“A ‘no deal’ Brexit will cause disruption – mitigation options are limited and no technology currently exists, which would eliminate border checks completely.

"Even if the UK waived customs checks on goods arriving from the EU, the EU has said that it will not reciprocate.”

HMRC has been asked to comment.