No ‘magic wand’ to fix supply chain

THERE will be gaps on supermarket shelves this Christmas, industry leaders have warned, as Rishi Sunak said he cannot “wave a magic wand” to make supply chain problems go away.

The Chancellor said the Government will do all it can to “mitigate” global supply issues, but he conceded that there is disruption and did not rule out Christmas being affected.

It comes as around 200 military personnel – half of them drivers – are being deployed to the roads for the first time to help deliver petrol to forecourts.

Around 22% of filling stations in London and the South East still do not have fuel, according to executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association Gordon Balmer.

And despite ministers insisting the situation at the pumps, which has seen queues and panic buying, is easing, Operation Escalin launched on Monday.

Members of the armed forces arrived at the Buncefield oil depot in Hemel Hempstead to help deliver fuel to filling stations, with soldiers, in uniform and wearing face masks, spotted walking near the gates to the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal.

Rishi Sunak

But Downing Street said the speed at which the crisis abates will depend on demand.

A number of industries are seeing labour shortages, including in meat processing.

And it has prompted warnings that Christmas favourites such as pigs in blankets may not be available for shoppers this year.

On a visit to a Network Rail site in Manchester with Mr Sunak on Monday, the Prime Minister said the supply chain issues were “a function of the world economy, particularly the UK economy, coming back to life after Covid”.

“There is a shortage of lorry drivers actually around the world, from Poland to the United States, and even in China they are short of lorry drivers,” he said.

And he added: “I think what we’re seeing is the recovery of the economy.

“We’ve now got the fastest-growing economy in the G7 and I think we’ve got unemployment way lower than people forecast, you’ve got jobs being created the whole time.

“What we want to see are high-wage, high-skilled jobs and I think business is doing a fantastic job of investing in apprenticeships, investing in skills, and that’s the way to go for the UK.

“On things like the road haulage industry, the thing to do is make the job more attractive, invest in the truck stops and invest in higher wages as well.”

However, No 10 said there was no “hard deadline” for when a transition to the “high wage, high-skilled economy” the Prime Minister promised would be complete.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s not something we would have a hard deadline for, considering it will cover a number of different sectors.”