European lorry drivers will not return to the UK to get the country ‘out of the s*** they created themselves’, a union leader has said.
The bold intervention comes as another industry expert warned that the HGV driver crisis could last until the spring.
Britain is currently experiencing major disruption to supply chains for various goods and services, leaving supermarket shelves empty of some items and fears of shortages over Christmas.
The problems have been widely blamed on a long-term shortage of lorry drivers, the Covid crisis and Brexit.
And this morning that led to a spokesman for the Dutch FNV union – which represents drivers across the Europe – to say the offer of temporary visas would not be enough to attract drivers back to the UK.
Edwin Atema told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. ‘On the short-term I think that will be a dead end.
‘So more is needed, and I think the EU workers we speak to will not go to the UK for a short-term visa to help UK out of the s*** they created themselves.’
Industry experts have said there is a shortage of around 100,000 lorry drivers in the UK – contrasting that with a Government offer of just 5,000 temporary visas to foreign lorry drivers – which will run out on Christmas Eve.
And in the aftermath of Brexit, some observers say European workers are even less likely to come to the country, because they do not feel welcome after the UK left the EU.
Social media users mocked the ‘tempting offer’ the Government was making to foreign lorry drivers – suggesting that the country had been yelling at them ‘to go back to where you came from for five years’.
Meanwhile, on Monday morning the policy director at trade association Logistics UK suggested that the HGV crisis could last until spring.
Elizabeth de Jong told BBC Breakfast: ‘Our estimates were that it would take really until spring next year to manage to recruit enough drivers to the industry from those who were lost during the Covid crisis when testing was closed down.
‘Over the weekend, the government announced an increase though in testing capacity, an increase in the option that we have for the first time of visas and also an increase in a training budget with free driver training.
‘Those will take a while to filter through the system but we are going to be focussing absolutely on this week getting them up and running.’
It comes as panic buying was blamed for a petrol being unavailable at pumps around the country, with drivers continuing to join huge queues for fuel on Monday morning.
Brian Madderson, the chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association, hit out at the administration of the crisis, suggesting there were 40,000 HGV driver applications ‘sitting on desks’ waiting to be processed.
He told BBC Breakfast: ‘This is a problem caused by somebody who leaked a confidential BP submission to a cabinet meeting about 10 days ago. We had problems of HGV shortages of drivers getting fuel tankers to the forecourts, but it wasn’t a critical situation at that stage.
‘The fact that she or he leaked the document, broadcast, there was panic buying right across main urban centres in the UK.’
Mr Madderson continued: ‘We understand there are as many as 40,000 HGV driver applications sitting on the desks in Swansea waiting to be processed.
‘Now that is just ridiculous, and is just one of many issues that have arisen to create the driver shortage we have today.’
He also said solving the short-term problem of dry pumps is in the hands of consumers, adding: ‘If they start buying in their normal quantities, £20 worth, 20 litres to fill up every week, we could see by the end of this week some return to normality – it won’t be perfect, but some return.’
Boris Johnson is said to be considering sending in the army to help ease fuel supply problems.
But Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the haulage industry had been warning for months about the shortage of drivers – warnings which she said ministers had simply ignored.
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘Since last year I have been meeting and talking with the Road Haulage Association and hauliers about some of the problems coming down the line.
‘The Government ignored those problems, which is why we are now facing the situation where people go to the supermarkets and see shortages of goods on the shelves, and why they are queuing up at petrol stations and not being able to fill up their tank.
‘That is not acceptable, this is an out-of-touch and complacent Government.’
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MORE : Scramble for foreign lorry drivers to ease shortage ‘too late to save Christmas’
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