PETROL, FOOD CRISES RESULT OF ‘GIANT WAKING UP’ OF ECONOMY, UK’S JOHNSON SAYS

Tue 05 October 2021:

The British prime minister stated on Tuesday that the country is not in crisis and that recent challenges in petrol and food logistics are tied to the economy’s recovery.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Boris Johnson called the situation “a giant waking up.”

“Imagine the UK has been in deep freeze and the pipes are unfreezing right now – stresses and strain of the economy waking up,” he said.

“What that shows is the global shortage,” Johnson said, revealing that only 127 foreign drivers applied for the newly introduced temporary visa for the haulage industry.

He said a difficult winter of the petrol crisis, empty supermarket shelves and rising energy prices were symptoms of the country’s economic path, which is trying to overcome lack of productivity, low wages, lack of investment in energy and infrastructure.

“This government is doing the difficult, long-term things,” Johnson said.

“We got Brexit done, which was a very difficult thing to do, and we are now going to address the big underlying issues that face the UK,” he added.

Johnson said the problem was partially caused by businesses as they had been able to “mainline low-wage, low-cost immigration for a very long time.”

“I think actually this country’s natural ability to sort out its logistics and supply chains is very strong. But what we won’t do is pull the lever marked ‘uncontrolled immigration’.”

Johnson’s comments come while the country has been in the midst of a nearly two-week-long gasoline shortage.

Some retailers temporarily closed some of their petrol stations due to a lack of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers, but the public reacted by queuing up for petrol in a panic buy way, causing actual fuel shortages at pumps.

A shortage of HGV drivers which is estimated at around 100,000 has negatively affected the economy as supermarkets open their doors to customers with empty shelves more often.

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