No fuel shortage, says transport secretary

There is "no shortage of fuel" and people should be "sensible" and only fill up when they need to, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said.

It comes amid reports of long queues and closed pumps at filling stations.

He said he did not want to "undercut" British workers but could not "stand by and watch while queues are forming".

Mr Shapps told the BBC's Andrew Marr that the problems with fuel supply were down to panic buying and said the situation would right itself as, unlike shortages of toilet roll at the start of the pandemic, fuel was difficult to store.

But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the fuel issues and shortage of HGV drivers showed a "complete lack of planning" by the government.

"For a long time we have known there is a problem with HGV drivers that's been there for years but we knew in particular that when we exited the EU there would be a need for a back-up plan to deal with the situation and there has been no plan from the government," Sir Keir said.

He said Boris Johnson needed to say what he was going to do about the situation on Sunday.

Asked if he would bring in 100,000 foreign drivers, the number which the UK is estimated to be short of, Sir Keir said "we have to issue enough visas to cover the number of drivers that we need.