This £1bn Panic Buy Is Shaming All Of Us

PANIC buyers have put the nation to shame by hoarding more than £1billion of groceries over the past three weeks.

- Nigel Nelson And Stephen Hayward

The supermarket shelf-strippers are buying 50 per cent more food than they need. Yesterday the stockpilers were told to start eating it.

Environment Secretary George Eustice implored them to think of others and insisted: “There’s more than enough food to go around.”

British Retail Consortium boss Helen Dickinson said: “The issue is around people and lorries getting that food on to our shelves, which is why we’ve seen shortages.”

She said of the £1billion glut: “We should make sure we eat some of it.”

NHS Medical Director Prof Stephen Powis said hospital staff had wept in shops after a long shift where shelves were empty.

He said: “We should all be ashamed. These are the very people we will all need to look after perhaps us or our loved ones in the weeks ahead.” One nurse who was saving lives in intensive care then found the supermarket shelves bare was

critical care nurse Dawn Bilbrough, 51, who had done a 48-hour shift.

Dawn, who works in Leeds, West Yorks, made a heartbreaking video begging hoarders to be considerate.

Tearful Dawn said: “I’ve just come out of the supermarket – there’s no fruit and veg. I had a little cry in there. I just wanted to get some stuff in for the next 48 hours.