Panic buying leaves fuel stations dry

Up to 90 per cent of British fuel stations ran dry across major English cities yesterday after panic buying deepened a supply chain crisis triggered by a shortage of truckers that retailers are warning could batter the world’s fifth-largest economy.

A dire post-Brexit shortage of lorry drivers emerging after the Covid-19 pandemic has sowed chaos through British supply chains in everything from food to fuel, raising the spectre of disruptions and price rises in the run up to Christmas.

Just days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government spent millions of pounds to avert a food shortage due to a spike in prices for natural gas, the biggest cost in fertiliser production, ministers asked people to refrain from panic buying.

But queues of dozens of cars snaked back from petrol stations across the country, swallowing up supplies and forcing many gas stations to simply close. Pumps across British cities were either closed or had signs saying fuel was unavailable yesterday, Reuters reporters said.

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents independent fuel retailers which now account for 65 per cent of all UK forecourts, said members had reported that 50 per cent to 90 per cent of pumps were dry in some areas.

“We are unfortunately seeing panic buying of fuel in many areas of the country,” Gordon Balmer, executive director of the PRA, said.