Pay offenders to drive HGVs in fuel crisis, suggests Raab

DOMINIC RAAB has suggested criminals given community sentences could be drafted in as HGV drivers amid continuing fuel shortage concerns.

Panic buying sparked by fears that a lack of lorry drivers could prevent supplies reaching fuel pumps has brought long queues and aggression to petrol station forecourts over recent days.

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has announced soldiers could be drafted in to drive tankers, along with civilians driving the government’s reserve fleet.

But Mr Raab, who was made deputy PM and justice secretary in Boris Johnson’s reshuffle, dismissed Labour’s call for 100,000 migrant visas for drivers.

The former foreign secretary (pictured) argued it would leave the country reliant on foreign labour – instead suggesting another way to fill the gap.

‘We’ve been getting prisoners and offenders to do volunteering and unpaid work,’ he told The Spectator.

‘Why not, if there are shortages, encourage them to do paid work where there’s a benefit for the economy, benefit for society?

‘If you give people skin in the game, give them something to lose, if you give them some hope, they’re much less likely to re-offend.’ Meanwhile, Gordon Balmer, of the Petrol Retailers Association, said ‘there are encouraging signs that the crisis at the pumps is easing’ – but forecourt staff were still being subjected to a ‘high level’ of abuse. Mr Kwarteng said the situation appeared to be ‘stabilising’ and added: ‘I think in the next couple of days you will see some soldiers driving tankers.’ Department for Transport data shows more than 56,000 applications for vocational driving licences, including HGV and bus permits, are waiting to be processed. Ministers have blamed the pandemic.