Britain says fuel crisis under control
Britain said yesterday that a gas station crisis caused by an acute shortage of truck drivers was back under control but many pumps remained closed in London leaving motorists searching or queuing for hours to fill their tanks.
In a chaotic week where fights broke out at gas stations and people filled up old water bottles with gasoline, British ministers have repeatedly said the crisis is easing though they ordered soldiers on Wednesday to start driving fuel tankers.
“That crisis is now absolutely something which is back under control,” Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke said.
The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents independent retailers who account for about two-thirds of all the 8,380 UK filling stations, said on Wednesday that 27 per cent of members reported being out of fuel and it expected the situation to further improve in the next 24 hours.
Role of Brexit
The gas station crisis has provoked scorn in some other European capitals with senior politicians suggesting that the trucker shortage was a clear consequence of the 2016 referendum decision to leave the EU.
UK ministers have repeatedly denied Brexit played a role, though tens of thousands of EU truckers left during the Brexit maelstrom, and have cited the Covid-19 lockdowns, which prevented tens of thousands of trucker tests.
Asked if Britain would be in a better position had it not left the single market, Clarke said: “I really don’t accept that.”