The government was warned the country could face the outbreak of a devastating disease or a major bio-security incident if checks at the Port of Dover on incoming goods were not implemented.

The warning was made by the Conservative leader of Dover council in a letter sent in May to the at-the-time Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The correspondence was revealed to KentOnline following a Freedom of Interest request.

It followed the government's decision to mothball a facility at Dover, which had been set to inspect food, plant and animal goods coming into the country, to make sure they meet stringent UK requirements.

The letter set out an alarming prospect in which foreign lorries from mainly eastern European countries were bringing in non-compliant and contaminated food and evading checks.

Cllr Trevor Bartlett, leader of Dover District Council, said physical checks on goods were needed to prevent the “devastating consequences of another animal health or food safety catastrophe, such as the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 which cost the public sector £3bn and the private sector £5bn or the 2013 horsemeat scandal, deemed the biggest food fraud of the 21st century".

The letter added: "Concerns surrounding African Swine Flu (ASF) have been elevated to Ministerial level with the level of risk deemed significant.”

Despite the warnings, just one month later the plan to build an Inland Border Facility at Guston, near Dover was jettisoned - along with the plan for the Dover Port Health Authority's facility, which was to be part of the project.

Cllr Bartlett says he was writing to the PM “to keep you abreast of what is happening at Dover’s coalface, where since leaving the EU we have seen a significant increase in non-compliant imported food, which we continue to battle at the border, and this will not subside because EU checks have been delayed.”

That was a reference to the government’s earlier decision to postpone the introduction of new checks.

Cllr Bartlett proceeded to warn: “We anticipate that the situation will only get worse and this increases the risk of a national food safety and/or biosecurity incident.

"Incidents of this nature result in often irreversible damage, such as loss of life, impacts on long term health, national culling programmes, etc.”

If such an incident occurred, the letter stated, it could lead “to long lasting and enduring reputational damage with reduced consumer confidence in UK food and agriculture, both within the UK and internationally.”

The letter continues: “The wider impact that could have on economic growth and international trade moving forward, could be devastating.

"As such, we must make our current border secure and with the Dover BCP (Border Control Point) we can achieve this.”

A reply came from the then Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, who said the decision to postpone checks “was taken in light of recent challenges faced by industry, such as persistent supply chain disruption and freight transport costs, the effects of conflict in Ukraine and the increased cost of living.”

He was non-committal on the timetable for checks and if they would be made at Dover, saying the government was aiming to implement a new regime of border controls by the end of 2023.

“This decision now gives us sufficient space to develop our own regime that is digitalised, simplified and proportionate to the risks posed. We constantly review whether further safeguards are needed and have a scientific process to assess and respond to changing biosecurity threats.”

Among the foodstuffs discovered by officials on checks on lorries were Romanian/Eastern European pork, fish and nut movements.

Checks had also discovered a consignment of Ukrainian Organic flax seed, which Cllr Bartlett said “when sampled by the team, revealed not only pesticides above the permitted level, but at levels which exceeded the maximum level for food safety in the UK. In other words, they were not safe to eat.”