Fuel crisis: Drivers still queuing for petrol as minister says shortages could last another week

Many British petrol stations were still dry on Friday after a chaotic week that saw panic-buying, fights at the pumps and drivers hoarding fuel in water bottles after an acute shortage of lorry drivers strained supply chains to breaking point.

Earlier Today, government minister Kit Malthouse suggested in a broadcast interview that shortages could last for another week as deliveries make their way into the supply chain.

Shortages of workers in the wake of Brexit and the COVID pandemic have sown disarray through some sectors of the economy, disrupting deliveries of fuel and medicines and leaving up to 150,000 pigs backed up on farms. British ministers have for days insisted the crisis is abating or even over, though retailers said more than 2,000 petrol stations were dry and Reuters reporters across London and southern England said dozens of pumps were still closed.

Queues of often irate drivers snaked back from those petrol stations that were still open in London.

"I am completely, completely fed up. Why is the country not ready for anything?" said Ata Uriakhil, a 47-year-old taxi driver from Afghanistan who was first in a line of more than 40 cars outside a closed Sainsbury's petrol station in Richmond.

"When is it going to end?," Uriakhil said. "The politicians are not capable of doing their jobs properly. The government should have been prepared for this crisis. It is just incompetence." Uriakhil said he had lost about 20% of his normal earnings this week because he has been waiting for fuel rather than picking up customers.

Ministers say the world is facing a global shortage of HGV drivers and that they are working to ease the crisis. They deny that the situation is a consequence of an exodus of EU workers following Britain's departure from the bloc, and have dismissed concerns the country is heading towards a "winter of discontent" of shortages and power cuts.

Though there are shortages of HGV drivers in other countries, EU members have not seen fuel shortages. The Petrol Retailers Association said members reported on Thursday that 27% of pumps were dry, 21% had just one fuel type in stock and 52% had enough petrol and diesel.

After a shortage of drivers triggered panic buying at fuel stations, farmers are now warning that a shortage of butchers and abattoir workers could force a mass cull of up to 150,000 pigs.