Flanked by seagulls against a powder-blue sky, a dredger is on day two of its low-rumbling shuffle across Ramsgate harbour. The job of excavating two-and-a-half metres of mud from the port is slow and dull. But the UK’s only royal harbour has become the site of fevered debate as it prepares to turn into “a second Dover” in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

With only 11 weeks to go and a £13.8m government contract awarded by transport secretary Chris Grayling to Seaborne Freight, a firm with no track record to run Ramsgate’s proposed ferry route to Ostend, the pressure is on.