PM's ‘Whack-A-Mole' Attitude To Government At Fault For Fuel Shortages, Says Starmer

Keir Starmer has blamed the fuel crisis on Boris Johnson’s “whack-a-mole” approach to running the country, urging him to plan ahead or risk staff shortages in a string of other industries in the coming months.

- Heather Stewart

Ministers have suspended competition law in the energy sector and called in the army as they scramble to alleviate the shortages on forecourts caused by a lack of HGV drivers.

Sectors including social care, hospitality and food production have highlighted difficulties in finding staff in the wake of Brexit and the pandemic, and the CBI said the problems could persist for up to two years.

Starmer said the Tories were “trying to whack down one problem and another one pops up somewhere else. And that is a pathetic, lamentable lack of planning.” He said a Labour government would “plan across the board with the different sectors”.

Starmer’s party voted for Johnson’s Brexit deal last Christmas, citing the risk of a no-deal exit; but the Labour leader has accused the prime minister of failing to “make Brexit work”.

Labour believes the spectacle of empty shelves and closed petrol stations sends voters a powerful message about the government’s incompetence – though some of Starmer’s colleagues felt he failed to intervene forcefully enough last weekend when the crisis was raging.