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Cars line up at a gas station in Ashford
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Gareth Fuller / dpa
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended Brexit in the face of the acute truck driver shortage and the fuel crisis.
"I don't think people in this country want to solve all problems with uncontrolled immigration again," Johnson said in a video message.
"We tried that for 20 years, maybe even longer." But this is not the way Great Britain should develop and grow.
The freedom of movement for workers will be over with Brexit.
Expensive visa procedures are now usually necessary for workers from the EU.
This is one of the reasons why many petrol stations in the United Kingdom are currently on dry land.
The background to this is the lack of truck drivers, which has already led to gaps in supermarket shelves.
Since some gas stations had to close last week due to the shortage of drivers, there has been panic buying.
Long queues form in front of gas stations.
Occasionally there were even scuffles because drivers were jostling for access to the petrol pump.
Pictures were posted on the Internet showing people pouring gasoline into old water bottles instead of reserve canisters.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps therefore called on the citizens to refrain from: "This is dangerous."
Sometimes 90 percent of the petrol stations do not have fuel
In some parts of the country, up to 90 percent of the petrol stations were without fuel, as the industry association PRA announced.
The utilities announced an easing in the coming days.
Demand will normalize at the usual level because many customers are oversupplied.
Nevertheless, Minister of Economic Affairs Kwasi Kwarteng said that soldiers could help out with the gasoline deliveries.
A limited number of military tankers had been put on standby.
They should be used for supply when required.
There is an estimated 100,000 shortage of truck drivers in the UK.
Because of the Brexit, many truckers have returned to the European continent.
In addition, the corona restrictions meant that training came to a standstill.
To remedy this, the British government had promised thousands of short-term visas for foreign drivers so that the British would not stand in front of empty shelves and gas stations at Christmas.
However, criticism has already come from the EU: For a few months, it was said that drivers would hardly be found.
Johnson stressed that the driver shortage is a global problem, the economy is picking up everywhere and demand is high.
In other countries, however, such extreme effects as in the United Kingdom have not been observed so far.
hba / dpa / Reuters