U.K. military begins fuel delivery amid driver shortage

British military personnel have begun delivering fuel to gas stations after a shortage of truck drivers disrupted supplies for more than a week, leading to long lines at the pumps as anxious drivers scrambled to fill their tanks.

About 200 service personnel were deployed Monday to boost deliveries after undergoing training at commercial fuel depots last week, the government said.

The U.K. is short tens of thousands of truckers, because of a confluence of factors including the coronavirus pandemic, an aging workforce and an exodus of foreign workers following Britain's departure from the European Union. The problem has contributed to empty supermarket shelves and shuttered gas pumps.

"Army drivers have gone out," Treasury chief Rishi Sunak told LBC Radio. "The situation has been improving now for, I think, over a week; every day, as the stats have come on, it's getting better and, as demand settles back to more normal levels, the strong expectation is things will resolve themselves.... People should know we're doing everything we can."

While the government says supply disruptions are easing, fuel retailers continue to report local shortages.

Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, said the problem is particularly bad in London and southeastern England, where 22 per cent of the group's members are still without fuel. The association represents about 5,500 independent fuel retailers across the country.

"Some of our members tell us that they have been without fuel for a number of days, some over a week now," Balmer told Sky News.

Part of post-Brexit adjustment, Johnson says

British ministers have repeatedly denied that the fuel crisis has anything to do with Brexit and have cast the trucker shortage as a global problem, though other European neighbours have not experienced queues at gas stations.

"The HGV drivers is not a U.K. issue, it's a Europe-wide issue and beyond," Sunak said. "I want people to know that we are doing everything we can to mitigate some of those challenges, where we can make a difference."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday he would not return to "uncontrolled immigration" to solve fuel, gas and Christmas food crises, suggesting such strains were part of a period of post-Brexit adjustment.

Amid the fuel station crisis, farmers have repeatedly warned that a shortage of butchers and abattoir workers could force a cull of more than 100,000 pigs backed up on farms.

Adding to the sense of chaos on Monday, the British capital was brought to a standstill by climate change activists who blocked major routes into London.

About 50 campaigners from Insulate Britain, which wants the government to commit to providing insulation for 29 million homes, blocked busy routes into the city including the Blackwall Tunnel in east London and a bridge over the River Thames in the southwest of the capital.

Police said they made 38 arrests.