Ferry firm forced to cancel and move journeys from Portsmouth over extra Brexit sailings

Unhappy passengers planning cross-Channel trips with Brittany Ferries were told their original sailings were no longer available.

Government handed the firm a contract to accommodate extra sailings to move critical goods, including medicine, if Britain crashes out the European Union on March 29.

The Le Havre to Portsmouth route has been affected.

One customer took to Twitter and said: 'I'm unimpressed at this level of self-inflicted harm to put it mildly.'

The service operates from Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth.

Around 10,000 customers across 5,000 bookings have been affected.

A spokesman from the firm told the BBC: ‘In most cases it's no change or a small change. But In some cases it can involve moving from an overnight sailing to a morning or afternoon sailing or vice versa.

‘We apologise in advance for any inconvenience that these changes may cause, but hope that the additional sailings will offer customers more choice.’

The government had handed Brittany Ferries a £46.6m contract to add an extra 19 sailings between the UK and France.

Its website said: ‘The contract guarantees space on some of our ships and Channel routes for the delivery of critical goods post-Brexit, like medicines.’