Shutting the DVLA during lockdown led to a shortage of 40,000 lorry drivers, Grant Shapps has said.
BP began closing petrol forecourts on Thursday after being hit by fuel shortages caused by a lack of lorry drivers. Esso said a "small number" of forecourts it operated for Tesco were also affected by driver shortages.
MPs and industry leaders have called for the Home Office to allow HGV drivers from abroad to be given fast-track visas to alleviate the shortage.
The Transport Secretary resisted such calls, saying while there were "systemic problems" that were exacerbating the issue, the "principle bottleneck" was the availability of tests for drivers because there were "none available during the coronavirus [pandemic]".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The problem is global, and certainly across Europe.
"Rather than Brexit being the problem, actually Brexit has helped to provide some the solutions... part of that has been changing things to do with the driving test, which we couldn't have done within the EU."
Mr Shapps told Sky News drivers "we were unable to test 40,000 drivers during coronvirus".
There was capacity for twice as many tests to be carried out now than before the pandemic, he added.
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Angela Rayner says her great advantage in Westminster has been the tendency of opponents to underestimate her, to assume that a school dropout cannot possibly pose a political threat, writes Fraser Nelson.
“Look down on me at your peril, mate,” she once told me. “Because I’ll eat you alive.”
Dominic Raab didn’t look down on her at Prime Minister’s Questions this week, but was eaten alive anyway. It was quite a sight. For the first time in years, the House of Commons was exposed to something that looks like Opposition. Labour MPs even looked like they were having fun.
Sir Keir Starmer’s problem lies in being overestimated. Having been one of the most successful lawyers of his generation, he had been expected to eviscerate Boris Johnson at the dispatch box.
Surely a former Director of Public Prosecutions would cut through the Etonian bluster with forensic courtroom brilliance? It seems not.
Read more from Fraser here.
Most members of the public believe lorry drivers should be paid more, new research suggests.
A survey of more than 2,000 adults for Unite found that more Labour voters than Conservatives were in favour of increasing lorry drivers' wages.
Half of respondents said they blamed the Government for food shortages, with only 14% blaming supermarkets, and a similar number blaming truck drivers.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "This poll seems to show that a considerable section of the public are ahead of the Government and the employers on the lorry drivers' crisis.
"Like Unite, the public recognise that providing decent jobs, on decent pay, for lorry drivers, would attract more workers to the industry," she added. "That would be a starter in beginning to deal with the current crisis. Years of suppressing drivers' pay and bypassing European regulations have led us to where we are now."
Relaxing visa rules to increase the number of HGV drivers could make the country's fuel shortage worse, Grant Shapps has claimed.
MPs and industry leaders have called for the Home Office to allow HGV drivers from abroad to be given fast-track visas to alleviate the shortage.
But the Transport Secretary said that while he was "moving heaven and earth" to resolve the problem, adding drivers to the shortage occupation list was not his favoured option.
Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast: "What I don't want to do is undercut with cheaper European drivers, and then find our drivers drop out because they are being undercut... I don't want to do things that will make situation worse."
It was "a difficult, long, hard day's work - a skilled job - and has been underpaid until now," Mr Shapps added. "I very much welcome salaries going up."
Sir Keir Starmer has expressed support for a decision to relax drug laws for those found in possession of Class A substances in Scotland.
Scotland's Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain QC announced on Wednesday that those caught with Class A substances - such as heroin or cocaine - could receive a police warning rather than prosecution.
In an ITV interview on Thursday, the Labour leader said Ms Bain's decision was "probably the right thing to do".
The former director of public prosecutions said: "There is a world of difference between a decision not to prosecute a particular case and ripping up the drug laws.
"It is not unusual in any legal system for those caught with small amounts of cannabis not to be prosecuted. I don't think many people would argue that that discretion isn't sensible.
"The very same in Scotland - there is a world of difference between that exercise and saying 'do you think drug laws should be scrapped?' to which my answer is no."
Politicians are used to receiving veiled threats about their impending demise, but Diane Abbott isn't bothering to code it.
The Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and long-time ally of Jeremy Corbyn this morning warned Sir Keir Starmer his planned changes to the way the party selects its future leaders "will make it easier for the right to dump him when the time comes".
A spokesperson for Insulate Britain outlined why the group, which wants the Government to insulate and retrofit homes across the UK, blocked Europe's busiest ferry port on Friday morning.
They said: "We are blocking Dover this morning to highlight that fuel poverty is killing people in Dover and across the UK.
"We need a Churchillian response: We must tell the truth about the urgent horror of the climate emergency. Change at the necessary speed and scale requires economic disruption.
"We wish it wasn't true, but it is. It's why the 2000 fuel protests got a U-turn in policy and gave Blair his biggest challenge as Prime Minister."
Protest group Insulate Britain say more than 40 supporters across two groups have blocked the A20 road in Kent which provides access to the Port of Dover.
Lorry drivers honked their horns as protesters bblocked an entrance to the port at 8.30am on Friday.
Protesters sat down in the middle of the road blocking the entrance to the port, just off the M20.
Read more here.
As we head into the Labour Party Conference, it's worth taking a look at how current polls stand - and it's clear that Sir Keir Starmer has still got his work cut out.
The latest YouGov vote intention polling for the Times found Labour on 35 per cent, four points behind the Conservatives on 39 per cent. Last week, there was a two-point Labour lead.
Of those who voted Labour in 2019, some 78 per cent said they would stick with the party, while 11 per cent said they would vote Green instead.
Sir Keir is making small inroads among those who did not back the party under Jeremy Corbyn, wooing just seven per cent back to the fold.
The man once dubbed "Professor Lockdown" has said it is unlikely the country will have to endure such draconian restrictions again.
Professor Neil Ferguson, who sits on Sage said he was "moderately optimistic" as England has not yet seen a large back-to-school surge in infections.
"We can't rule out some need for additional measures, but I very much doubt we will need to go back into lockdown again," he told Sky News. There could be a return to social distancing if there is a "significant uptick" in hospital admissions but a "full-blown lockdown" is unlikely.
"As long as we can roll out the booster programme and the vaccination of teenagers as promptly as possible, I'm moderately optimistic," he said.
The chief executive of one of the UK's top 10 energy providers said the current energy crisis is "bringing flaws to the surface that otherwise would have gone un-noticed".
Bill Bullen, the chief executive of Utilita Energy, said the industry would be "under stress if we have a particularly cold winter - that is going to cause further problems - but properly financially sustainably run businesses, prudent businesses, will have forward hedged their position for this winter and we feel confident about that."
However structural problems, such as being "far too focused on price", must be addressed longer-term.
"It's this dependency on imported kilowatt hours and imported hydrocarbons that's kind of got us into the situation we're in now," he explained.
"If we're tackling energy consumption, not just consumers but businesses as well, that would be a big step towards tackling some of the other issues we've got as a country."
Motorists should "carry on as normal", despite being warned of shortages at fuel forecourts as BP announced it was closing pumps and rationing petrol last night.
Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, told Sky News that his advice - and that of the oil giant - was not to panic-buy as he tried to downplay comparisons to the Tony Blair-era protests that led to chaos at the fuel pumps.
"There was an actual strike, there was a blockade, it was a very different situation," he added.
"I am not saying there is no issue, there has been an issue and that is what has been reported on [but] those conversations are from over a week ago.
"Although there are stresses and strains in the system, by and large you can see it has not impacted on every day life."
Grant Shapps has offered would-be holidaymakers a glimmer of hope that the requirement for PCR tests will be dropped by October half-term.
The Government is in a race against time to get a new regime up-and-running in a month's time, to alleviate the expense of the more accurate - but costly - tests, replacing them with lateral flow tests.
The Transport Secretary said: "Colleagues at the Department of Health are working on this, I know they have October half-term in mind.
"It looks to me like they will be able to step up to that."
He added: "I have every confidence that system will be up and running in good time."
Brexit is "part of the solution" for dealing with a shortage of HGV drivers, the Transport Secretary has insisted.
It is estimated that the UK is short of about 100,000 HGV drivers, with the industry estimating it has lost 20,000 European drivers due to Brexit, while the pandemic had forced 40,000 driver training tests to be cancelled.
But Grant Shapps told Sky News: "I have seen people point to Brexit as if it’s the culprit - in fact they are wrong.
"Not only are there larger shortages in other EU countries.. But because of Brexit I have been able to change the law and alter the way we manage tests."
That was only possible because the UK was no longer part of the EU, he added.
Grant Shapps was at pains to play down the impact of firms shutting their petrol stations this morning, insisting just five out of "12 or 1300" BP garages were closed.
He was unable to confirm how many Tesco forecourts have also been shut but said he was meeting with executives this morning.
"Morrison's and Asda are saying they have no problems," he told Sky News. "It's quite a defined problem... just a handful of stations are affected."
Reports this morning suggest at least 50 BP stations in Britain are missing at least one grade of fuel, however, with dozens of others affected.
Ministers fear a second Winter of Discontent – and with good reason.
A chill wind beckons, with fuel shortages and runaway inflation added to a list of woes that already included empty supermarket shelves, spiralling energy bills, a tax rise in the spring and an extraordinarily badly timed cut to Universal Credit for the poorest families.
Economists predicted a hike in interest rates, and with it the prospect of higher mortgage repayments.
On Thursday, senior ministers, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned of the "collision of a Winter of Discontent'".
Boris Johnson might have hoped for better headlines on his return from his first trip to the White House since becoming Prime Minister.
But domestic issues have overshadowed his US jaunt - and the energy crisis is threatening to get worse still.
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