UK to offer 10,500 post-Brexit visas to counter worker crisis
Minister blames industry rep for petrol-buying frenzy
LONDON: Britain will issue up to 10,500 temporary work visas to lorry drivers and poultry workers to ease chronic staff shortages, the government announced Saturday, in a U-turn on post-Brexit immigration policy. The short-term visas, to run from next month until late December, come as ministers grapple with a huge shortfall in drivers and some other key workers that has hit fuel supplies and additional industries.
A tanker drivers shortage has caused large queues at petrol stations in recent days, as people ignore government pleas not to panic-buy fuel after some garages closed due to the lack of deliveries.
The decision to expand the critical worker visa scheme is a reversal by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose government had tightened postBrexit immigration rules insisting that Britain’s reliance on foreign labor must end. It had resisted the move for months, despite an estimated shortage of around 100,000 heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers and warnings from various sectors that supplies would run short. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps nevertheless insisted he was taking action “at the earliest opportunity” and that a broader package of measures announced would ensure pre-Christmas preparations “remain on track”.
Meanwhile, Britain’s transport secretary yesterday accused lorry industry representatives of helping to spark petrol panic-buying, as he defended a U-turn on post-Brexit immigration policy to ease an escalating supply crisis. Grant Shapps’s comments came hours after the government said it will issue up to 10,500 short-term work visas to lorry drivers and poultry workers to ease chronic staff shortages that have hit supplies to various sectors.
Disruption spread to fuel retailers this week after a number run by BP and ExxonMobil-owned Esso were forced to close to customers due to a lack of deliveries-immediately prompting long queues forming at numerous petrol stations.
But in broadcast interviews yesterday claimed a road haulage association leak to the media about potential fuel delivery shortages had contributed to the panic-buying, and blamed the industry for being “counterproductive”. “There has been some pretty irresponsible briefing out by one of the road haulage associations which has helped to spark a crisis and that’s very, very unhelpful,” he told Sky News.
Shapps, who insisted there was no actual fuel shortfall at UK refineries and storage facilities, accused the haulage industry of being “desperate” to employ more European drivers and “undercutting British salaries”. “I know that’s been their ask all along,” he added. But Rod McKenzie, of the Road Haulage Association-reportedly alleged to have made the leak-called the claim “nonsense”.
He said the government needed to encourage a “holistic” approach to the numerous problems the industry faces. “The industries must also play their part with working conditions continuing to improve and the deserved salary increases continuing to be maintained in order for companies to retain new drivers,” he added. But one business leader dismissed the new measures as inadequate.
Millions of pounds for ‘skills bootcamps’
“This announcement is the equivalent of throwing a thimble of water on a bonfire,” said Ruby McGregor-Smith, president of the British Chambers of Commerce. The additional testing would take time to impact while new visa numbers were “insufficient” and not “enough to address the scale of the problem”, she added. The new measures will focus on rapidly expanding the number of new domestic drivers, and include deploying Ministry of Defense driving examiners to help provide thousands of extra tests over the next 12 weeks. Meanwhile the education ministry and partner agencies will spend millions of pounds training 4,000 people to become HGV drivers, creating new so-called “skills bootcamps” to speed up the process.