Fuel crisis: Londoners reveal why they’re queuing for petrol

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The woman was queueing up at a petrol station in Hounslow, North London, as hundreds of Britons across the country rush to fill up their cars out of fear fuel stocks may run out. Motorists began to rush to stations on Friday after disruptions were reported to the restocking of petrol due to the ongoing shortage of HGV lorry drivers. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps reiterated on Sunday petrol is widely available in the UK despite the potential delays but drivers have continued to fill up the roads in hope of getting some fuel into their cars.

Speaking to Sky News, the woman said: “I’m only queueing because everybody else is queueing, to be honest.

“I need a bit of petrol. If it all runs out I’m stuck, how am I going to get to work?”

Another woman said she had been roaming around to fill up her tank since Saturday as she had nearly run out.

She said: “I don’t have any petrol, and I went around last night to three or four petrol stations and they were closed. So I’m stuck in here.”

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 A man also said he had been nearly out of fuel and joined the queues out of concerns for stocks running out in the coming days.

He said: “I’m quite low right now as well.

“I don’t know what the situation is going to be in the coming days so I’d rather get some now than leave it any longer.”

Grant Shapps told Sky News on Sunday: “There’s plenty of fuel, there’s no shortage of the fuel within the country.

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“So the most important thing is actually that people carry on as they normally would and fill up their cars when they normally would, then you won’t have queues and you won’t have shortages at the pump either.”

Mr Shapps said the shortage of drivers was down to COVID-19 disrupting the qualification process for drivers, preventing new labour from entering the market.

Others pinned the blame on Brexit and poor working conditions forcing out foreign drivers.

The government on Sunday announced a plan to issue temporary visas for 5,000 foreign truck drivers.

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An Opinium poll published in The Observer newspaper on Sunday said that 67 percent of voters believe the government has handled the crisis badly.

A majority of 68 percent said that Brexit was partly to blame.

Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said ministers had failed to plan for labour shortages following the 2016 Brexit vote and called for a bigger temporary visa scheme.

“This is a complete lack of planning: we exited the EU….just one consequence was there was going to be a shortage of HGV drivers.

“That was predictable, it was predicted.”

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