Johnson demands pay rise for truckers
Government clashes with business as panic buying drivers trigger chaos on forecourts across Britain
BORIS JOHNSON has warned firms to increase lorry drivers’ wages, as ministers urged 40,000 retired HGV licence holders to return to work to help refill petrol stations and deliver supplies to supermarkets.
As a war erupted between ministers and business groups, a senior government source said a temporary relaxation of rules allowing more EU workers to help replenish a shortage of drivers would only “run up to Christmas” because “we need to be paying these people more rather than just flooding the market with cheap labour.”
The intervention came as at least 200 petrol stations across the country ran out of one or more types of fuel last night after private industry warnings of a shortage of HGV drivers were leaked to the media. The Government and AA insisted that there was no shortage, with officials saying that panic buying was responsible for individual stations running dry between deliveries. Edmund King, president of the AA, urged motorists to only fill up when running low. Yesterday, government sources alleged BP’s claim 10 days ago that the driver shortage would cause it to ration petrol station deliveries appeared to have been leaked deliberately in an attempt to “strongarm the Government into loosening immigration rules”. BP denied being behind the leak, stating: “That is flat out wrong. We completely reject that suggestion.”
Last night, ministers announced an additional 5,000 HGV fuel tanker and food lorry drivers would be able to come to the UK for three months, “providing short-term relief for the haulage industry”, with 5,500 visas for poultry workers made available for the same period – following lobbying by the food industry. Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said the move was designed to protect households’ preparations for Christmas.
Even as the Government went public with the announcement, the British Retail Consortium claimed the 5,000 limit for additional drivers would “do little to alleviate the current shortfall” and three times the number was required.
The British Chambers of Commerce reopened a row over post-Brexit migration, saying “the supply of EU labour was turned off with no clear roadmap as to how this transition would be managed.”
Amid fury among some ministers about being “bounced” into relaxing immigration rules in response to the HGV shortage, one government figure said: “Every time the CBI [Confederation of British Industry] says ‘we need more immigration’, we say, ‘no you don’t, you need to invest in British workers’. But this time we have gone, ‘OK, have a bit more immigration.” In other developments:
♦ Patients face shortages of over the counter drugs and prescription delays as the lack of van drivers hits pharmacies
♦ Household energy bills are set to soar by more than £300 a month as the country’s poorest families take the biggest hit, forecasts by the Centre for Economics and Business Research show
♦ Andrea Leadsom, the former business and energy secretary, described
the energy price cap as a sledgehammer which distorts the market”.
As part of a package of measures intended to tackle the shortage of HGV drivers, the Government announced plans to train up to 4,000 more people to become HGV drivers, including through new “skills boot camps” as well as the “immediate deployment” of military driving examiners to lay on thousands of additional tests.
A letter to all of the one million HGV drivers who currently hold a licence will “encourage those who have left the industry to return”. Ministers are hoping to form a temporary “Dad’s Army” of drivers drawn from a group of some 40,000 who have quit or retired in the last two years. But the Government warned that ministers “want to see employers make long-term investments in the UK domestic workforce” with “better pay”.
Mr Shapps said: “We are acting now but 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. I know how important this Christmas is for all of us and that’s why we’re taking these steps at the earliest opportunity to ensure preparations remain on track.”
Mr Johnson has held several meetings on the issue in recent days. As of last night, the Ministry of Defence had not yet received a formal request for military drivers to help with delivering petrol to station forecourts, despite contingency planning for them to do so.
More than 40 petrol stations had closed or sold out of all fuel, with 18 out of 95 motorway service stations said to be experiencing supply problems.
One paramedic said she had struggle to find fuel for an emergency ambulance on Friday. Yesterday a fight broke out on a forecourt in Sidlesham, Chichester.
Prices increased by 15p in two hours at another petrol station in Kent, according to Howard Cox, founder of Fair Fuel UK. Other stations have increased their prices by 5p to 6p, he added.