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Business

‘Crazy’: Britain puts army on standby as panic buying leaves petrol pumps dry

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  • ‘It’s crazy,’ driver says at gas station
  • Army tanker drivers to be deployed if needed
  • Trucker shortage has hit supply chains
  • Britain says will extend some HGV licences
  • Retailers caution about Christmas supply

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – British drivers expressed frustration on Tuesday as they hunted for hours or sat snarled in queues to fill their tanks after gas stations in major cities ran dry due to a trucker shortage that has prompted the government to put the army on standby.

Queues of drivers snaked back from those petrol stations that were still serving in major cities, though dozens of forecourts were closed with signs saying they had no petrol or diesel, Reuters reporters said.

A post-Brexit shortage of lorry drivers, exacerbated by a halt to truck-driving-licence testing during COVID lockdowns, has sown chaos through supply chains, raising the spectre of shortages and price rises in the run up to Christmas.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said a limited number of military tanker drivers had been put on a state of readiness to be deployed to deliver fuel if necessary.

“I can’t believe it – it’s crazy,” said David Scade, a 33-year-old delivery driver who drove for hours searching for fuel in London.

“They keep saying there is no shortage but I suppose everyone is panicking now,” said Scade who was filling up at a Shell gas station in London.

Fights broke out at some English petrol stations as drivers jostled for fuel. Medics said health workers should be given priority to fill their cars to keep the health service working.

An air of chaos has gripped the world’s fifth largest economy in recent weeks as the shortage of truckers strained supply chains and a spike in European wholesale natural gas prices tipped energy companies into bankruptcy.

Retailers, truckers and logistics companies have warned that prices for everything from energy to Christmas gifts will have to rise.

CHRISTMAS SUPPLY?

British ministers, fuel companies and petrol stations say there are sufficient supplies of fuel but that the lack of truckers combined with panic buying has drained the system.

Such is the gravity of the situation that the British Medical Association has called for health workers to get priority access to fuel to ensure the health service can operate. read more

The demand for fuel has meant that 50% to 90% of pumps were dry in some areas of Britain, according the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents independent fuel retailers who account for 65% of all the 8,380 UK forecourts.

The government on Sunday announced a plan to issue temporary visas for 5,000 foreign truck drivers. But some Polish hauliers said that offer was laughable and that few would be likely to take it up.

Hauliers, petrol stations and retailers say there are no quick fixes as the shortfall of truck drivers – estimated at about 100,000 – was so acute, and because transporting fuel demands additional training and licensing.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) urged the government to broaden the size and scope of the scheme to attract the truckers needed to keep Christmas supplies on track.

“To avoid disappointment for millions of households during the festive season we urge the government to rapidly extend this programme, both in size and scope, to HGV drivers in all sectors of the retail industry,” Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC, said.

“It will take many months before there are enough new British drivers to cover the shortfall,” Opie said.

Writing by Michael Holden and Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Alistair Bell and Philippa Fletcher

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Britain expected to ease visa rules as truck driver shortage bites

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LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Britain is expected to announce plans to issue temporary visas to truck drivers to alleviate an acute labour shortage that has led to fuel rationing at some filling stations and warnings from retailers of significant disruption in the run-up to Christmas.

As queues started forming outside filling stations early on Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said it was looking at temporary measures to address the shortage of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers.

Newspapers reported that the government would allow up to 5,000 foreign drivers into Britain on short-term visas, a measure that logistics companies and retailers have demanded for months but which the government had previously ruled out.

The UK’s Road Haulage Association (RHA) says Britain needs 100,000 more drivers if it is to meet demand. The driver shortage has been caused partly by Brexit and COVID-19, and the loss of about a year of driver training and testing.

“We’re looking at temporary measures to avoid any immediate problems, but any measures we introduce will be very strictly time limited,” a spokeswoman for Johnson’s Downing Street office said in a statement.

Downing Street declined to give further details.

Ministers have cautioned against panic buying, and oil companies say there is no shortage of supplies, merely problems delivering the fuel to the gas stations.

However, long lines of vehicles have begun gathering at petrol stations to fill up after BP (BP.L) said it had to close some of its outlets due to the driver shortages.

Some Shell (RDSa.L) stations have also reported pumps running dry while ExxonMobil’s (XOM.N) Esso has also said a small number of its 200 Tesco Alliance retail sites had also been impacted in some way.

EG Group, which runs hundreds of forecourts across Britain, said on Friday it would impose a purchase limit of 30 pounds ($41) per customer for fuel due to the “unprecedented customer demand”.

“We have ample fuel stocks in this country and the public should be reassured there are no shortages,” the Downing Street spokeswoman said.

“But like countries around the world we are suffering from a temporary COVID-related shortage of drivers needed to move supplies around the country.”

The fuel issue comes as Britain, the world’s fifth-largest economy, also grapples with a spike in European natural gas prices causing soaring energy prices and a potential food supply crunch.

Other countries such as the United States and Germany are also dealing with truck driver shortages.

Britain says the long-term solution is for more British drivers to be hired, with the RHA saying better pay and conditions are needed to attract people into the industry.

But the retail industry has warned that unless the government acts to address the shortage in the next 10 days, then significant disruption is inevitable in the run-up to Christmas. read more

($1 = 0.7311 pounds)

Reporting by Michael Holden and Guy Faulconbridge
Editing by Frances Kerry

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World

UK vows to manage fallout from soaring gas prices

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  • Business minister says he will protect customers
  • Minister to continue to meet industry representatives
  • Lack of CO2 threatens meat supply
  • Small energy providers seen at risk

LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Britain said on Saturday it would work with the energy industry to try to stem the fallout from soaring gas prices after fears grew that more energy providers and food producers would struggle to operate with such high costs.

Business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said he had been reassured that the security of gas supply was not a cause for immediate concern but he would work with providers to “manage the wider implications of the global gas price increase”.

Kwarteng held emergency talks with executives from National Grid (NG.L), Centrica (CNA.L), EDF (EDF.PA) and the regulator Ofgem on Saturday and is due to hold further discussions with industry figures on Sunday and Monday.

A jump in gas prices has already forced several domestic energy suppliers out of business and has shut fertiliser plants that also produce carbon dioxide, used to stun animals before slaughter and prolong the shelf-life of food. read more

Consumer groups and opposition politicians have warned that some customers and businesses will struggle to pay higher bills. The BBC reported that at least four small British energy companies were expected to go bust next week.

The Business department said the pressures facing companies was discussed during the meeting. Kwarteng said no customer would go without gas or electricity because an alternative supplier would be found if one went bust.

“Protecting customers during a time of heightened global gas prices is an absolute priority,” he said on Twitter.

RENEWABLES

The government has been moved to act after low gas storage levels, decreased supplies from Russia, demand from Asia, low renewables output and nuclear maintenance outages combined to more than triple European gas prices this year, hitting record highs. read more

The impact was immediately felt in the UK food sector where the shortage of CO2, also used in beer, cider and soft drinks, compounded an acute shortage of truck drivers, which has been blamed on the impact of COVID-19 and Brexit.

Nick Allen of the British Meat Processors Association said on Saturday the pig sector was two weeks away from hitting the buffers, while the British Poultry Council said its members were on a “knife-edge” as suppliers could only guarantee deliveries up to 24-hours in advance.

“Doing nothing is not an option,” Allen told Reuters, adding that given the exceptional circumstances, the government needed to either subsidise the power supply to maintain fertiliser production or source CO2 from elsewhere.

Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland Foods, said a CO2 shortage would hit meat products, atmospheric packaged products such as cheese and salads, and long life bakery items.

“We need to sort it, quickly,” he said.

Dermot Nolan, former head of Ofgem, told the BBC he expected prices to stay high for up to four months and it was not clear what the government could do to affect market rates – meaning they will remain a focal point in the run-up to the COP26 climate conference in Scotland in November, where governments will seek to agree new rules to suppress emissions.

Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Edmund Blair, David Holmes and Gareth Jones

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World

EU rejects reworking N. Ireland deal, urges rhetoric dial-down

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BELFAST, Sept 10 (Reuters) – The European Union rejected a British demand to renegotiate their deal governing the trading position of Northern Ireland, saying that to so would only bring instability and uncertainty.

European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, who oversees post-Brexit EU relations with Britain, said in a speech on Friday that the Northern Ireland protocol needed to be properly implemented and that it was not the cause of problems, rather the only solution.

“A renegotiation of the protocol – as the UK government is suggesting – would mean instability, uncertainty and unpredictability in Northern Ireland,” he said, according to the text of his speech at Queen’s University in Belfast.

Under the protocol, Britain agreed to leave some EU rules in place in Northern Ireland and accept checks on goods arriving from elsewhere in the United Kingdom, in order to preserve an open land border with EU member state Ireland. London has since said the arrangement is not working and wants it changed.

Sefcovic, on a two-day visit to the British province, said the EU was seeking solutions for all, including those opposed to the protocol.

European Commissioner for Inter-institutional Relations and Foresight Maros Sefcovic speaks during a news conference on Brexit at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, June 30, 2021. Francisco Seco/Pool via REUTERS

“I know it is possible for us to work together, if rhetoric on both sides is dialled down,” he said, adding that the spirit of compromise had to be mutual.

Gavin Robinson, a member of Northern Ireland’s largest pro-British party, the Democratic Unionist Party, described Sefcovic’s comments as “belligerent”, “mistaken” and “foolish”. read more

Sefcovic said the EU was committed to working with Britain to overcome difficulties but any solutions could only minimise the effects of Brexit, not entirely remove them, given London’s choice to leave the EU single market and customs union.

The commissioner said the two sides should continue discussions to limit the impact of the protocol on everyday life in Northern Ireland, while maintaining its special access to the EU’s internal market.

Britain has said it wants a “normal treaty framework” that is not policed by the European Court of Justice. Sefcovic said that would effectively mean cutting Northern Ireland out of the EU single market.

Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Conor Humphries in Dublin; Editing by John Chalmers, Angus MacSwan and Mark Heinrich

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Business

London takes aim at New York with five-year financial plan

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A woman exercises with a dog near the City of London financial district, in London, Britain, April 30, 2021. REUTERS/John Sibley

  • Ambitious plan depends on tax cuts, open door hiring
  • TheCityUK says New York took top spot in 2018
  • Brexit, rise of Asian financial centres add pressure

LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Britain needs to ease taxes on banks and make it easier to hire staff from abroad, its financial and professional services lobby said in a blueprint to help London unseat New York as the world’s top international financial centre within five years.

The strategy paper on Tuesday from TheCityUK reiterated some ideas already aired in government-backed reports and elsewhere in recent months as the City of London looks to recoup ground lost following Britain’s departure from the EU. read more

“By some metrics, the UK is losing ground: London is currently slipping further behind New York each year while other centres are strengthening,” the paper said.

The U.S. financial capital overtook London in 2018 in a leading annual survey, it said, adding that New York dominated in stock market listings.

“The UK therefore needs to adopt a relentless focus on strengthening its international competitiveness to win back the prize of being the world’s leading international financial centre,” TheCityUK lobby group, which promotes the wider financial sector abroad, paper added in the paper.

Britain’s departure from the European Union effectively closed London off from its biggest financial services customer, adding further pressure to catch up.

The finance ministry has already set out reforms to make London’s capital market more competitive, and TheCityUK set a five-year target for London to “out-compete its rivals” by amending tax, visa and other rules.

Becoming the global hub for financial data, sustainability investing and investment and risk management will also be crucial in helping Britain overtake New York, TheCityUK said.

The total tax rate for a London bank is 46.5%, 13% higher than a New York based bank, it added.

But persuading government to cut taxes on finance as it mends a hole in the economy from COVID may be challenging, as will having an open door on hiring given the Brexit referendum pledged to crack down on high levels of international mobility.

The single most important issue for financial firms is being able to hire globally, TheCityUK CEO Miles Celic said.

“In conversations we have had with government, I think that is something that is absolutely understood,” he told reporters.

Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Alexander Smith

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World

UK to extend Northern Ireland’s Brexit grace periods

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LONDON/DUBLIN, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Britain plans to further extend post-Brexit grace periods on some goods imports to Northern Ireland, Brexit minister David Frost said on Monday, in a move designed to give London and Brussels more time for talks about trade with the province.

The fate of British-ruled Northern Ireland was the most contentious issue in Britain’s negotiations over its exit from the European Union, which was completed on Dec. 31, and it has continued to cause friction.

To avoid imposing a hard border on the island of Ireland, Britain agreed to leave some EU rules in place in its province of Northern Ireland and accept checks on goods arriving there from elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

London has since said the arrangement is not working and wants it changed, while the EU rejects renegotiating the treaty.

“To provide space for potential further discussions (with the EU), and to give certainty and stability to businesses while any such discussions proceed, the government will continue to operate the protocol on the current basis,” Frost said in a written ministerial statement.

“This includes the grace periods and easements currently in force,” he said.

The European Union took note of Britain’s plans, but said it was not pursuing further legal steps against London.

“At present, the Commission is not moving to the next stage of the infringement procedure launched in March 2021, and is not opening any new infringements for now,” the bloc’s executive said in a statement.

Officials in London and Brussels have been trying to prevent the dispute from escalating into a full-blown trade war.

The European Commission agreed in July to freeze legal action against Britain for making changes to the protocol that Brussels says breach the Brexit treaty.

London has now indicated it would prolong grace periods, suspending new checks on cross-channel trade due to kick in within weeks.

Ireland is a key player in post-Brexit trade talks and Irish deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar, speaking after a meeting with British Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, said he expected the British move to lead towards attempts to reach a more permanent solution.

“The expectation is that the United Kingdom will announce a further extension of the grace periods, not just in relation to Northern Ireland but also imports from the EU and Ireland into the UK,” Varadkar said in an interview with Irish state broadcaster RTE.

“It is important that we use the period of any extension that may occur really to get down to business and to try to put in place more permanent … arrangements to make sure that the protocol is made more workable,” Varadkar told RTE.

But Varadkar warned that any more permanent solution secured between London and Brussels would have to be within the confines of the existing agreement.

Varadkar said Gove had told him that Britain “doesn’t want to walk away from the protocol but does want to make it more workable”.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said last month he believed the issues could be resolved with the right political will. read more

Reporting by Conor Humphries in Dublin and James Davey in London, Sabine Siebold in Berlin; Editing by Michael Holden and David Clarke

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World

UK PM Johnson: don’t get carried away with falling COVID-19 cases

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  • PM Johnson warns against premature conclusions from COVID data
  • Britain has reported six straight days of lower daily cases
  • End of the pandemic could be months away – epidemiologist
  • Early Scottish fall in cases could illustrate Euro 2020 effect

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that people should not get carried away by six days of better COVID-19 infection data, while one of the country’s top epidemiologists said the end of the pandemic could be just months away.

Johnson has lifted restrictions in England and is betting he can get one of Europe’s largest economies firing again because so many people are now vaccinated, a decision which marks a new chapter in the response to the novel coronavirus.

The number of new daily COVID-19 cases has fallen each day for the last six days, though Johnson stressed the pandemic is not over.

“I’ve noticed obviously that we’re six days into some better figures, but it is very, very important that we don’t allow ourselves to run away with premature conclusions about this,” Johnson told broadcasters, noting it would take a while for the lifting of restrictions in England to feed through to the data.

“People have got to remain very cautious and that remains the approach of the government.”

Imperial College epidemiologist Neil Ferguson said the end of Britain’s pandemic could be just months away as vaccines have so dramatically reduced the risk of hospitalisation and death.

“We’re not completely out of the woods but the equation has fundamentally changed,” Ferguson, whose modelling of the virus’s likely spread at the outset of the pandemic in early 2020 alarmed governments across the world, told the BBC.

Johnson lifted COVID-19 restrictions in England on July 19. New daily cases in the current wave peaked two days earlier at 54,674 and have since fallen dramatically, to 24,950 new cases on Monday.

The closure of schools for summer, the end of the Euro 2020 soccer championships and warmer weather are among factors epidemiologists say might have reduced social mixing indoors and therefore cases, even as England’s economy has fully reopened.

Case numbers have been falling for longer in Scotland, where the recent peak in cases was on July 1, than in England, corresponding to an earlier elimination from the Euros.

“Both of them seem to coincide in some ways with the end of activity in the Euro 2020 tournament,” Rowland Kao, epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, told Reuters, adding that changes in testing patterns might mean that the sharpness of the drop is overstated in daily testing figures.

“(Cases) may go up again, because we’re only just going to be starting to see the effect of the complete release of restrictions associated with July 19 in England. So there may still be rises yet to come.”

While the number of COVID-19 patients in British hospitals has risen to 5,238, a spike in infections earlier in July has so far not led to a vast increase in deaths, which fell to 14 on Monday.

Britain has one of the highest official death tolls from COVID-19 in the world, with 129,460 deaths, but vaccinations and lockdowns have greatly slowed the rate of deaths since March.

Ferguson said the impact of vaccines on reducing the risk of hospitalisation from COVID-19 had been huge, adding: “I’m positive that by late September, October time we will be looking back at most of the pandemic.”

Reporting by Sarah Young and Alistair Smout, additional reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Janet Lawrence and Catherine Evans, William Maclean

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World

EXCLUSIVE UK to warn EU it may deviate from Brexit deal on N.Ireland -sources

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  • UK prepares showdown with EU over N.Ireland
  • UK to warn it may deviate from Brexit deal
  • Frost says: Things have to change
  • Frost says: All options on the table

BRUSSELS/LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) – Britain will threaten this week to deviate from the Brexit deal unless the European Union shows more flexibility over Northern Ireland, one UK and three EU sources told Reuters, a move that could thrust the five-year Brexit divorce into tumult.

Deviating from the deal’s so-called Northern Ireland Protocol is a risky step: its aim was to prevent Brexit from disrupting the delicate peace brought to Northern Ireland by the U.S.-brokered 1998 agreement that ended three decades of sectarian conflict.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who signed the 2020 Brexit deal, has been dismayed by the protocol which has imposed paperwork and checks that London says could prevent British food staples such as sausages going to Northern Ireland.

David Frost, the British minister who leads Brexit negotiations, is preparing to announce a significant potential change on the protocol that could have far-reaching consequences for the relationship with the EU, one of the sources said.

The plans are being worked on by Downing Street. Frost is due to update parliament on Wednesday about Northern Ireland and Brexit, and will also present a paper on Brexit to lawmakers.

After the Reuters report, Frost told lawmakers the protocol was not sustainable in its current form and that if an agreement could not be reached then London would consider all options, including unilateral action through Article 16 of the protocol.

“All options are on the table,” Frost said, when asked if he would consider triggering Article 16. “We’ve said it’s not sustainable in the way it’s working at the moment, things have got to change.”

Frost said it was not yet clear whether or not a fundamental rebalancing of the protocol was possible.

Brussels expects Frost will push for a deviation from the protocol unless the EU agrees to compromise, said an EU diplomat who was briefed on talks with British negotiators.

“We will not agree to the reopening of the Irish protocol,” said a third source, a senior EU official.

Britain is expected to go beyond its demands for changes to veterinary rules. The senior EU official and a second EU diplomat said that London would seek to have the European Court of Justice (ECJ) removed from the arbitration process.

Preserving the peace in Northern Ireland while protecting the EU’s single market but without dividing up the United Kingdom was always the most difficult riddle of the Brexit saga since the 2016 referendum.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Since the United Kingdom exited the bloc’s orbit on Jan. 1, Johnson unilaterally delayed the implementation of some provisions of the protocol and Frost has said the protocol is unsustainable.

Frost is insisting on a bespoke veterinary deal based on equivalence which London says would remove the need for controls on goods crossing from Britain to Northern Ireland.

Britain is arguing that there should be a more flexible approach to agri-food rules to limit the impact on everyday lives and will spell out clearly what the options and risks are.

The 1998 peace deal largely brought an end to the “Troubles” – three decades of conflict between Irish Catholic nationalist militants and pro-British Protestant “loyalist” paramilitaries in which 3,600 people were killed.

An open Irish land border is seen as crucial to the spirit of that deal by aiming to safeguard peace, free trade and travel on the island.

But that became a problem after the 2016 Brexit vote. The EU could not close the land border between Northern Ireland and Ireland but feared it could become a backdoor into the EU’s single market.

The result was the 63-page “Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland”, which effectively keeps Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods and having Northern Ireland apply EU customs rules at its ports.

But by putting checks on some goods crossing between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland, many pro-British unionists say the protocol has breached the 1998 peace settlement.

Loyalist paramilitary groups told Johnson in March that they were temporarily withdrawing support for the peace agreement due to concerns over the Brexit deal. read more

Writing by Gabriela Baczynska and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels and Guy Faulconbridge in London; additional reporting by William James; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Catherine Evans and Toby Chopra

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World

Two decades after 9/11, British spies turn focus back to Russia and China

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MI5 Director General Ken McCallum is photographed in London, Britain October 14, 2020. UK Government/Handout via REUTERS

  • Western intelligence shifted focus to terrorism after 9/11
  • MI5 chief urges greater vigilance over hostile state actions
  • UK spies say Russia, China seek to steal technology, sow discord

LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) – Britain’s top domestic spymaster cautioned citizens on Wednesday to treat the threat of spying from Russia, China and Iran with as much vigilance as terrorism, in a shift of focus back to counter-espionage nearly two decades after the 9/11 attacks.

The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States made tackling terrorism the biggest priority for Western intelligence agencies, with vast resources being focused on the threat from home-grown and foreign-based militants.

But the growing assertiveness of post-Soviet Russia, the rise of China, and Iran’s sometimes daring espionage has forced the West’s spies to return their focus to counter-intelligence, or spies tracking, countering and tackling other spies.

Security Service (MI5) Director General Ken McCallum said foreign spies killed, stole technology, sought to corrupt public figures, sow discord and attack infrastructure with potentially devastating cyberattacks.

“Some hostile actors are prepared to come to the UK to kill,” McCallum said in a speech at Thames House, MI5’s London headquarters.

Since a 2018 nerve agent attack in England targeting former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, MI5 has disrupted hostile power activity that might have resulted in an attempted killing, he said, though he declined to give details.

‘STATE THREATS’

MI5’s biggest job is still tackling terrorism – and McCallum warned of the dangers emanating from Syria and Afghanistan – but said there was an important need to refocus attention on the threats from state actors such as Russia, China and Iran.

“We are aiming to double the amount of MI5 resources going into state threats activity,” he said. “Our counter-terrorism business has been heavily dominant for the last two decades and the state threats work has unavoidably been squeezed.”

British spies say China and Russia have each sought to steal commercially sensitive data and intellectual property as well as to interfere in domestic politics and sow misinformation.

Beijing and Moscow say the West is gripped with a paranoia about plots. Both Russia and Chine deny they meddle abroad, seek to steal technology, carry out cyberattacks or sow discord.

U.S. prosecutors have charged four Iranians, alleged to be intelligence operatives for Tehran, with plotting to kidnap a New York journalist and human rights activist who was critical of Iran. read more

MI5 began as a counter-intelligence service in 1909, first focusing on the threat from Germany and then, after World War Two, focusing on the Cold War threat posed by the Soviet Union’s agents.

Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Costas Pitas, Michael Holden and Gareth Jones

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