Basically every report said this would happen, the government dismissed it as 'project fear' and still refuses to admin that it has anything to do with brexit.

Basically every report said this would happen, the government dismissed it as 'project fear' and still refuses to admin that it has anything to do with brexit. I'm sure it was brought up internally in the government, but they won the election by promising to deliver sunshine and rainbows brexit even though they had no way of doing so. Addressing it before it became a problem would've looked bad, so they didn't, and the pandemic provided a convenient excuse.