A Cabinet minister has issued a fresh plea to motorists to stop panic buying, amid new warnings that up to 90 per cent of British fuel stations have run dry.
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, blamed shortages on motorists for filling up when they did not need to.
"The most important thing is that people buy petrol as they normally would. There isn't a shortage. There have been some shortages of HGV drivers getting petrol to forecourts but actually that is quite limited," he told journalists.
"The cause of these current problems is that panic-buying episode... The only reason we don't have petrol on the forecourts is that people are buying petrol they don't need."
The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents independent fuel retailers which now account for 65 per cent of all UK forecourts, said members had reported that 50 per cent to 90 per cent of pumps were dry in some areas.
Gordon Balmer, executive director of the PRA, told Reuters: "We need some calm. Please don't panic buy: if people drain the network then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."
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Rachel Reeves has accused Chancellor Rishi Sunak of being "missing in action" given the energy crisis, petrol station queues and supply chain delays.
The shadow chancellor told delegates in Brighton: "This Government is incompetent, this Government is in denial, this Government is careless and chaotic, and they are responsible for this mess.
"The Tories have lost control.
"These problems have been exposed by the Government's Brexit deal, by their response to the pandemic and by a failure to plan for either."
Labour will scrap the "perverse" Universal Credit system, shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds has vowed.
Speaking at the party conference, he said: "For many people, work simply doesn't pay enough. It won't take them two hours to make up the ￡20 cut - it will take five times that.
"That's because up to 75 per cent of the extra money they earn is taken away from them through the taper rate, even before travel costs or childcare come into it.
"Britons on the lowest incomes effectively pay a higher marginal rate of tax than their Prime Minister because of that taper rate. It's perverse.
"So, the next Labour government will change that and make sure people keep more of the money they earn."
Some of Europe's biggest political names have blamed Brexit for the ongoing petrol crisis engulfing the UK.
Clement Beaune, long-time Brexit troll and France's Europe minister said: "We see the intellectual fraud that Brexit was, especially on the issue of immigration.
"They are responding to it today by re-Europeanising themselves, because they realise that it does not work on their own."
Meanwhile in Berlin, Olaf Scholz suggested it was a consequences of ending free movement.
"We worked very hard to convince the British not to leave the Union. Now they decided different, and I hope that they will manage the problems coming from that," the man expected to named chancellor said. "This is a problem to be solved."
The bromance between Andy Burnham and Michael Gove is brewing.
Fresh from having praised the new Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Local Government and Communities, (see 11:12am for more), the Mayor of Greater Manchester has suggested the two go clubbing.
“Obviously we're very keen to welcome the new Communities Secretary, so we're going to lay on a special Warehouse Project Hacienda night.
“We’re going to show him the best that Manchester can offer. We’re 24-hour party people. Aberdeen’s good..."
Drafting in the Army to drive petrol tankers, and issuing 5,000 temporary visas to foreign workers, will not be sufficient to avert the mounting crisis, industry figures have warned.
Brian Madderson, the chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), said it would not be "an absolute panacea".
"Of course what we don’t want is a crossover of petrol getting into a diesel tank, diesel getting into a petrol tank, because that has disastrous effects on the engine," Mr Madderson said.
Meanwhile Edwin Atema from the Dutch FNV union, which represents drivers across the Europe, said the 5,000 temporary visas was "a dead end" option.
He told the Today programme: "More is needed, and I think the EU workers we speak to will not go to the UK for a short-term visa to help UK out of the s*** they created themselves."
The Government has "no plans at the moment" to use the Army to drive petrol tankers amid continuing shortages at filling stations, the Environment Secretary has said.
George Eustice called on motorists to stop "panic-buying" petrol and return to their normal pattern of purchasing, insisting there was no shortage of fuel.
In a pooled clip for broadcasters, Mr Eustice said: "We are bringing Ministry of Defence (MoD) trainers in to accelerate some of the HGV training to clear a backlog of people who want to carry out those tests, and there's definitely a role there for the MoD.
"In terms of other things we've no plans at the moment to bring in the Army to actually do the driving, but we always have a Civil Contingencies section within the Army on standby - but we're not jumping to that necessarily at the moment."
A total of 53 people have been arrested following an Insulate Britain road block on the M25.
Met Police also confirmed lanes have reopened at the scene, at junction 14 near Heathrow.
A police spokesperson said: "The road has been cleared and traffic is flowing again. We made 53 arrests as we worked to minimise disruption motorists.
"Where possible, we opened up lanes to ensure traffic could continue to move. Those arrested are being taken to custody."
Dame Angela Eagle has called for delegates at the party conference to "manage their passions" in a foreign policy debate on Israel and Palestine.
Chairing the debate, the Wallasey MP said: "I'd just like to say that clearly some of the matters to be discussed in this debate today are sensitive and I know many delegates will feel very passionate ... I am sure that everyone, despite their passion, will remember to manage that."
Jawad Khan, of Young Labour, moved a motion condemning "illegal actions" by Israel's government against Palestinians, sending "uncompromising solidarity" to the latter.
Yesterday an altercation on the fringes of the conference at an event on Jewish matters threatened to provoke a new row, as the party voted in new independent disciplinary process to deal with anti-Semitism cases.
Labour's deputy leader has said she will apologise if Boris Johnson goes first, noting he has "made comments that are racist, homophobic and sexist".
Angela Rayner, who is coming under fire for refusing to back down after she called Tories "scum", added: "Boris Johnson also called the children of single mothers 'ignorant and illegitimate'.
"According to Boris Johnson , when I was a young single mum I should have been pushed into ‘destitution on a Victorian scale’. So you can apologise for those comments as well Prime Minister."
After causing a bit of a stir with her first fringe appearance, Angela Rayner seems to be taking a different approach to future sessions.
Colleagues tell me the deputy leader failed to show up to the event she was down to attend this morning.
She was, however, spotted listening to a plenary session along with Sir Keir Starmer.
The Conservative Party's foreign policy is for the "Lex Greensills and David Camerons", Lisa Nandy has said, arguing the "appalling" losses falls on steel workers in towns across Britain.
The shadow foreign secretary said: "When Boris Johnson shamefully abolished the department for international development he said we couldn't afford to keep our promises to the world's poorest and help people at home. Then look what he did next. He slashed aid. And then he cut Universal Credit.
"Theirs is a foreign policy for the Lex Greensills and David Camerons - one where the rewards are theirs, but the appalling losses fall on steel workers in towns like Rotherham. We will navigate by different stars."
In a surprise endorsement, Andy Burnham has thrown his support behind Michael Gove in his new role as minister for Levelling Up.
"To be honest, I think Gove is good news for levelling up," he told a fringe event at Labour’s Brighton conference.
"I'm not going to make a pointless criticism here. I was his shadow when he was Education Secretary. I honestly think we clashed with pretty much all of that agenda that he brought in, in 2011.
"But the thing about Michael Gove is at least he does things. He brings energy to what he does, and you may disagree with me, but he acts as a minister, and he creates an agenda, and he then implements it."
Mr Burnham added: "There are so many who just aren't doing that. They're just minding the shop or something. But Gove doesn't do that. He really goes at things."
Boris Johnson will meet members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group at Downing Street on Tuesday afternoon - 398 days after promising to do so.
Families, who are expected to repeat their calls for a public inquiry to start immediately, have asked for the meeting to take place outdoors with social distancing.
Group co-founder Jo Goodman said: "One of the hardest parts of the pandemic for us has been seeing new families join each week with the same pain and grief that we've experienced and distressingly similar stories to our own.
"We first called for a rapid review last summer so that lessons could be learnt from the deaths of our loved ones to protect others, and we can't help but feel that if we'd been listened to then, other lives might have been spared.
"We hope that the Prime Minister will listen to us tomorrow, and start the process to begin the inquiry immediately, whilst ensuring that the perspective of bereaved families is at its heart."
Dan Jarvis has expressed his hopes of a return to the Labour frontbench as part of Sir Keir Starmer's shadow cabinet.
Asked by The Telegraph about his political ambitions after announcing he will step down as Mayor of South Yorkshire, Mr Jarvis said: "I've always said for the leader to decide and choose who he wants to have on his frontbench.
"I'm incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to be a metro mayor and I've taken the decision to hand it over to someone else. But the big fight will be about who's going to secure the next government and I want to do my bit supporting the leader - hopefully from the frontbench if he offers me a job, but I'll see where we get to."
It is important for Labour to have "clear, authoritative northern voices" in its leadership team rather than "London elites", Mr Jarvis added, noting there is "quite a bit of buyers' remorse" from Red Wall constituents who voted Tory for the first time in 2019.
See 10:29am for more.
Andy Burnham has begun a day of fringe event appearances with a broadside against the Labour leadership.
Speaking at an event on Labour’s vision for the future of the UK, the Mayor of Greater Manchester said the party must be "setting out its stall" in opposition by announcing policy, not focusing on "trenchant, stinging criticism".
He added: "I just think that's how it works now in the age of social media. You can't just criticise. You can't set policy on everything, I understand that, but on the big things that are levelling up and social care… you have to set out your stall."
Amid rumours there has been a row between Mr Burnham and Sir Keir Starmer over the fact he has not been given a speech on the party’s main stage, the man who is seen as a leadership rival said Labour must "win hearts and minds back" in the North.
"I'm asking myself, by the way, why does none of those northerners have a platform speech? I’m just asking that question, because that is the kind of thing that isn't yet right."
A Labour government would seek to "build bridges" with Russia and China, in a bid to grapple with the states' increasing aggression, the shadow foreign secretary has said.
Lisa Nandy invoked Mo Mowlam's work in securing the Good Friday Agreement, noting that the former Northern Ireland secretary was "heavily criticised" for having visited the notorious Maze prison in 1998, but this had paved the way for the peace deal.
Ms Nandy added: "The Tories say we can turn our backs. Conference, they are wrong.
"Building walls is easy. Building bridges - in the world, in the country and let’s be honest, with each other – that’s the hard part... Genuine diplomacy demands dialogue especially when we disagree. Real leadership knows that compromise is not cowardice."
Labour will seek to create a "self-confident country", Lisa Nandy has said, as the shadow foreign secretary sought to make a patriotic appeal to voters.
Speaking in the main hall at the party conference, Ms Nandy said: "The Tories will tell you that they stand up for our country. Never let them get away with it.".
Ms Nandy also attacked the Government for having "backed those booing our young England football players who took a stand in support of global resistance to racism.
"How dare they claim to stand up for Britain," she added. "The self-confident country we will lead will be different... measured not in the number of our flags but in the health of our kids and the strength of our communities, in the dignity of our workforce and the security of our nation."
Labour must be serious about national security and patriotism if it is to win the Red Wall back at the next election, Dan Jarvis has said.
The Barnsley Central MP and former frontbencher - who may be angling for a return - said the 2019 general election, in which he narrowly held onto his seat, was "very grim" and he received abuse from voters, some of whom called him a "traitor".
"When it comes to really important decisions like national security, like being patriotic, and support for the armed forces, these are the kinds of things my constituents really take seriously and really believe in," he told a SME4Labour panel at the party's Brighton conference.
"We can never be in a situation where they can think we’re questionable," he added.
It's not just the row over Angela Rayner's comments that threatens to overshadow Labour Party conference, as the party becomes embroiled in a debate over trans rights.
Rachel Reeves was clearly uncomfortable as she was questioned on an issue, which Labour MP Rosie Duffield said had left her unable to attend the party's conference in Brighton after receiving threats and abuse.
Asked about it this morning, the shadow chancellor said the issue has "just become so divisive and toxic, and it pits people against each other - both groups who have faced discrimination in society, women and trans women".
She added: "I just find this debate incredibly unhelpful and unproductive, to be totally honest."
Asked whether it was transphobic to say "only women have a cervix", Ms Reeves told LBC: "Is it transphobic? I don't even know how to start answering these questions."
Challenged again, she added: "If somebody identifies as a woman or a man, they should be able to do so whatever their body parts are."
After yesterday's glorious weather, today has seen autumn well and truly descend on Brighton.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, got caught in some of the gusty winds this morning as she made her way to the main conference hall.
Meanwhile Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, went for a morning run in the rain.
Insulate Britain protesters have caused disruption on the M25 for the sixth time in a fortnight despite injunctions which mean they could be jailed.
Activists from the group formed a roadblock on the slip road at junction 14 near Heathrow on Monday morning.
A total of 52 protesters arrived at about 8am and were moved to the verge by police.
The group, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, is calling for the Government to insulate homes in the UK to help cut carbon emissions.
Some care workers, NHS staff and taxi drivers are unable to fill up at petrol stations, London mayor Sadiq Khan has said.
London's bus network has enough fuel but the "shambolic situation" has meant that shortages are hitting petrol stations across the capital, he told Sky News.
"Our emergency services and our buses have enough and they have some in reserve, but we are hearing stories about care workers, people who work in hospitals who need their car to go to hospital, black cab drivers, private hire vehicle drivers not being able to fuel up and provide the services that our city needs but also to enable people to get to work," Mr Khan said.
"We are working with the DfT (Department for Transport) to do what we can to make sure we have fuel being provided particularly for those key workers across our city."
Sadiq Khan has said he understands "Angela's anger", as the row over the language used by Labour's deputy leader continues.
Angela Rayner yesterday refused to apologise for calling senior Tories "scum" - although some colleagues have distanced themselves from her comments.
The Mayor of London told Sky News: "I understand Angela's anger and the passion it comes from... the criticism of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet is their failure to address the needs of those who are most vulnerable in our society."
He added: "Angela speaks in the way Angela speaks. It's not language I would use."
The chairman of the Petrol Retailers' Association has doubled-down on his criticism of the DVLA (see 8:32am).
Brian Madderson told BBC Breakfast: "We understand there are as many as 40,000 HGV driver applications sitting on the desks in Swansea waiting to be processed.
"Now that is just ridiculous, and is just one of many issues that have arisen to create the driver shortage we have today.
"We heard yesterday at the Government meeting that some of the hauliers are desperate to have their drivers go back on the road, but because of the strict medical requirements they have had to submit details to Swansea and there's a lack of process."
The tax system is "stacked against high street businesses", the shadow chancellor has said, ahead of a speech in which she sets out plans to rip up the business rates system.
Rachel Reeves told BBC Radio 4's Today: "I want taxes to be fair, efficient and I want them to support our high street businesses.
"We have got a situation at the moment where - in the first six months of this year, every single day - 50 high street businesses were closing. Four out of five businesses are saying that if the Government goes ahead with its business rates increase next spring then they will have to consider closing outlets.
"This is not a place that we want to be, people want thriving high streets in all of our communities.
"But at the moment the tax system is stacked against high street businesses and small businesses - they are paying more than their fair share of tax while some businesses are paying less than their fair share."
Germany is facing months of uncertainty after the centre-left Social Democrats narrowly won their first national election since 2005 to end 16 years of conservative-led rule under Angela Merkel.
The Social Democrats' candidate Olaf Scholz, the outgoing vice chancellor and finance minister who pulled his party out of a years-long slump, said the outcome was "a very clear mandate to ensure now that we put together a good, pragmatic government for Germany".
But the closely fought race is not over yet.
Read more here
Labour's Rachel Reeves has blamed Brexit for the current petrol and food crisis, saying it is "obviously a contributory factor".
The shadow chancellor told Sky News that while there were other factors at play, including structural workforce issues and the pandemic, Brexit had "cut off a supply of labour", which meant it was "contributing and adding to those problems".
She added: "To deny that flies in the face of reality."
The Government should stop "blaming others" for the shortage of HGV drivers, Ms Reeves said, adding: "They need to get a grip."
The Government is "out of touch" with people on petrol and food shortages, Labour's Rachel Reeves has said, as she accused ministers of being "negligent" in handling the crisis.
"We wrote to the Government several weeks ago now saying should urgently refer this to the Migration Advisory Committee and we have been talking to hauliers for the best part of a year now, because of emerging problems," the shadow chancellor told Sky News.
"The Government has been complacent and negligent and out of touch on these issues and the impact they are having on ordinary people and businesses."
The Government's plan to introduce 5,000 temporary visas to address the HGV driver shortage will not "do the trick", Labour's Rachel Reeves has said.
The shadow chancellor noted that there were 100,000 fewer HGV drivers in the country currently, but the Government was only planning to issue 5,000 visas, saying: "I am not convinced that will do the trick."
She added: "If the Army can help contribute that should happen, but there are more fundamental issues here.
"We need to be training more people up, getting people through that testing process and improve pay and conditions in the sector."
Consumers must "keep calm" and stop panic-buying while the Government implements longer-term solutions to tackle HGV driver shortages, a trade body has said.
Elizabeth de Jong, policy director at trade association Logistics UK, told BBC Breakfast that although there is "enough fuel for everyone", the surge in buying petrol has "caused a very big problem".
She added: "I represent and have been dealing with the Government over the general shortage of HGV drivers, we have got a number of announcements there about increased tests, funding of new visas, so there are issues in the industry and some of these will take a while to resolve, some of these can be resolved, so a lot is being done, but we really need to keep calm, just as we did through Covid with toilet rolls, for this not to continue.
"There's the shorter-term panic-buying which if we go back to our normal amounts and almost relax our behaviour and bring it back to normal then that can calm down quite quickly."
Rachel Reeves has said the current fuel crisis is “not because of nationalisation or privatisation” as she insisted any renationalisations must represent value for money.
Ms Reeves insisted that Sir Keir Starmer was right to say that the Big Six energy companies would not be renationalised under a Labour administration.
“I’m a pragmatic sort of person. I want to do economic sense and do what is good value for taxpayers.
“I will get value for money for every pound of taxpayers’ money that a Labour government spends.”
Grant Shapps has been told to address the "unacceptable performance" of the DVLA, which is exacerbating the country's petrol crisis.
Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers' Association, told Sky News that the agency was "sitting on" 40,000 applications for HGV drivers' licences, which would be a more effective solution than alternative options - including sending in the Army - because of the training required.
"They have had strikes in Swansea, and working from home, but whatever is going on, it is a completely unacceptable performance," he said. "This is the responsibility of the Department of Transport, Grant Shapps' department. I wonder if he has ever been there to sort it out. "
Getting in the Army was "not quite as easy as you think, because HGV tanker drivers are a highly trained, specialised breed", so replacing them would require additional training.
Meanwhile attracting foreign drivers back from the EU would be problematic because there are "shortages across the continent". He also questioned "quite how many we can attract back for just three months" under the temporary visa plan as currently envisaged.
Freedom of movement is no longer the policy of the Labour Party, the shadow chancellor has confirmed.
Ms Reeves said returning unlimited immigration from Europe would not solve the HGV crisis, despite backing Keir Starmer’s proposals for 100,000 temporary visas for foreign truck drivers.
“People have voted to leave the EU and we need to move on,” she told the Today programme. “At the moment it’s just an ad hoc process.”
Asked whether Labour no longer backed freedom of movement, Ms Reeves added: “When Keir ran to be party leader we hadn’t at that stage left the EU or got a deal.
“We moved on, we voted for that deal last year… it was better than no deal. We’re not going to bring back free movement under a Labour Government.”
In spring 2020, Sir Keir pledged to “defend free movement as we leave the EU” as one of 10 policy promises during his Labour leadership campaign.
Motorists “couldn’t care less” about the nationality of Britain’s HGV drivers, the shadow chancellor has said as she echoed Keir Starmer’s calls to issue 100,000 visas to lorry drivers.
Rachel Reeves emphasised the need to train more Britons in the longer term but suggested there are currently not enough who would be willing to do the work.
“Right now we’ve got a situation where there are 100,000 too few HGV drivers and there aren’t enough people who want to be driving those trucks and have the qualifications to do so,” she told the Today programme.
“We’ve got to plug those gaps. People couldn’t care less whether the HGV driver who gets the petrol to the forecourt is British or foreign. They want to fill up their car and go about their business.”
More British workers should be trained up in the long-term and the migration advisory committee should be taking action on skills shortages, she added.
Sir Keir Starmer’s proposals to bring in 100,000 lorry drivers is "not going to address a fundamental long-term problem at the heart of the HGV crisis, a union boss has said.
"I am not convinced that issuing loads of visas is going to address the problem," Gary Smith, general-secretary of the GMB, told the Today programme.
"We have a short-term crisis, but there has to be a conversation about a country that is mired in low pay. We are paying for years of driving down working conditions."
The proposals being readied by the Government were a "sticking plaster" but the problems had been caused by a "race to the bottom" in pay and conditions, he said.
Jeremy Corbyn has backed Labour's deputy leader in the row, after Angela Rayner called Tory voters "scum".
Her comments were yesterday disavowed by Sir Keir Starmer and Lucy Powell, the shadow housing secretary.
However the former party leader told BBC Radio 4 she was right, saying she "has a way with words and is right to be really strong in opposing what this Government has done.
"I am alarmed at levels of poverty in this society and horrified about the way racist attitudes are promoted against refugees," he added.
The now-independent MP also praised John McDonnell for describing Starmer's essay as "the sermon on the mount written by focus group", adding that the leader needs to "stop fiddling about with rule changes and constitution of the party, get out there and campaign".
The whistleblower who leaked confidential comments made during a top-level Government was to blame for having sparked petrol panic buying over the weekend, which has resulted in average stock levels falling below 20 per cent.
Brian Madderson, the head of the UK Petrol Retailers Association, told Sky News that the whistleblower was "completely and utterly irresponsible", with his actions "immediately" sparking panic buying across the country. "
It was being entirely well maintained at that point by industry and Government, who were moving towards a solution," he added.
"We really didn't need this whistleblower to set off panic buying."
Boris Johnson will be asked to decide on Monday whether to sign off on plans to draft in the Army to help tackle Britain’s mounting fuel crisis.
On Sunday, ministers discussed proposals to trigger Operation Escalin – a plan which would see “several hundred” soldiers brought in to drive petrol tankers – and are due to formally present the plans to the Prime Minister on Monday.
It comes after they were shown government figures suggesting that petrol stations across most of England had average stock levels below 20 per cent, enough for just one to two days.
While there is no shortage of fuel in the country, there have been problems getting it to filling stations because of a lack of HGV drivers and panic buying.
We greet you from a blustery Brighton this morning, as we head into day three of the Labour Party conference.
But the storm clouds are not only gathering for Keir Starmer, as the Government grapples to keep the country on the road following several days of petro panic buying.
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