Army tankers hit the roads, drivers hunt for fuel overnight and police control queues

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Boris Johnson was today accused of ‘gaslighting’ by irate drivers still stuck in queues for fuel through the night who insisted the Prime Minister’s claims that the crisis is ‘stabilising’ is ‘absolute bulls***’.

Army tankers have been spotted on the roads this morning as fights broke out on forecourts now guarded by police and motorists described driving from petrol station to petrol station and finding most of them closed with many claiming the situation is ‘getting worse, not better’.

Ministers began briefing on Monday that they believed the crisis would begin easing from today as drivers who needed petrol or diesel would then have been able to fill up. The PM then gave a statement insisting the crisis was ‘stabilising’ and told drivers to ‘go about their business in the normal way and fill up in the normal way, when you really need it’.

But Britons caught up in queues for the seventh day running, especially in London and the south-east as well as major cities such as Birmingham and Manchester, believe the situation is getting worse not better.  And in more pain for drivers, the RAC has warned that fuel prices could reach record levels even if the current crisis ends, reaching 143p per litre for petrol and 145p per litre for diesel in the next few weeks – up around 10p.

Kim Sunley tweeted: ‘Absolute bulls**t to say the fuel crisis is over. One station closed, two gridlocked with queues. Government gaslighting’. Another said: ‘Being told there is petrol when I’ve been to five petrol stations and they’ve had none is literally gaslighting’.

One motorist wrote this morning: ‘Oh my God!!!, the lack of petrol is seriously getting worse’. Another tweeted: ‘I went to to at least 12 petrol stations today as I’m running on fumes. 11 completely out, 1 had petrol with queues stretching down the bypass. It’s getting worse’. One picked up on Mr Johnson’s claims it is ‘stabilising’, saying: ‘Yes, stabilising into a lack of fuel’.

It came as the Government has advised councils not to use the phrases ‘panic’, ‘panic buying’ or ‘stock-piling’ in reference to the fuel crisis, in the hope it will reduce queues.

The advice was in a presentation rom the Cabinet Office’s Behavioural Science Team – known the ‘Nudge Unit’ whose members believe they can use psychology to influence the public’s behaviour.  The Green Party council told the BBC the recommendations are ‘nonsensical’. 

Petrol stations face disruption for up to a month even if panic buying stops, industry figures have warned, as the Army is set to start driving fuel tankers to petrol stations this week – despite Mr Johnson‘s claim petrol panick-buying is ‘stabilising’. 

But despite Mr Johnson’s claim, people were again queuing through the night and at dawn to get fuel in their tanks.  Drivers also claim that away from the queues, roads in central London are quieter because fewer cars are out because of a lack of fuel, meaning thousands of people are either unable to get to work or working from home.

Traffic data from experts TomTom shows that apart from Monday this week, congestion has been down in London for six of the last seven days. 

Petrol station staff are being subjected to ‘unacceptable’ levels of abuse, industry leaders have warned as London continues to bear the brunt of the ongoing fuel crisis – which has seen ambulances left stranded and could last for another month. 

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) said its latest survey of its members found just over one-in-four forecourts had run dry, down from more than a third on Tuesday, with troops driving tankers expected to appear on the roads ‘in the next couple of days’ to stabilise the situation. 

But despite pleas for calm, more mass brawls have broken out across Britain over petrol. In Epping, Essex yesterday, accusations of queue jumping or taking too much fuel caused a fight to spill out into traffic, with one man involved repeating ‘You didn’t need it’ while launching a series of punches and kicks. 

Amid high demand for fuel and a shortage of jerry cans, footage also emerged showing two men filling a bucket lined with a black binliner with unleaded – a highly dangerous illegal move. The fuel would be certain to dissolve the bag and likely to melt the bucket. 

And an ambulance was even left stranded for four hours after it broke down – and recovery trucks had no fuel to reach it – leaving a vulnerable patient unable to get to hospital in North Wales for an appointment.

Now the crisis threatens to spill over into education as some schools are left on the brink of not being able to transport, feed or teach their pupils. Headteachers now warn that online lessons may have to be brought back.

As drivers queued through the night outside petrol stations for the sixth day running, ever-increasing swathes of the economy and public services also continued to be hit with school buses cancelled, blood deliveries stopped, nurses sleeping on wards and up to a third of London‘s black cabs now parked up with empty tanks.

The capital is believed to be one of the worst-hit regions following a weekend of panic buying, with more drivers filling up per station – after recent years saw hundreds of forecourts turned into shops or housing developments. 

President of the AA, Edmund King, told Sky News the organisation has seen ‘few problems’ in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but the ‘London and the South East have been hit hardest’. He added: ‘We have had reports of drivers dribbling in £1.72p worth of petrol and £2.05 of diesel, which is pretty counter-productive as they would have used those amounts searching for fuel.’ 

Now fuel is being diverted from large companies to garage forecourts, with bosses at the UK’s main fuel terminals under orders to prioritise motorists over major firms, The Telegraph reports.

The government has instructed them to send tankers that were meant for large companies to go to garages and service stations instead, industry sources have claimed. Whitehall sources insist that any diversions are the decisions of fuel firms and not the government’s orders.

Motorist groups praised the tactic amid fears the crisis is still not under control. The AA’s fuel spokesman, Luke Bosdet, said: ”I think drivers would say ‘damn good idea”.’ 

And shoppers can now expect a ‘nightmare’ Christmas with higher priced gifts and limited stocks on shelves amid labour and shipping problems, with many families not able to get themselves turkey in time for December 25, analysts warn.

Shore Capital retail analyst Clive Black said the crisis was ‘totally avoidable’ and it has ‘nothing to do with Brexit’. He told The Times: ‘It’s to do with mismanagement of the economy… It’s not just the politicians but their permanent secretaries.’

Mr Black added: ‘I expect Christmas will be a nightmare for consumers. There will be food on supermarket shelves but there will be a distinct lack of choice. Shortages of labour have meant businesses have not laid down the same number of turkeys or planted the same number of crops and the HGV driver shortage is compounding the problem. A lot of people eating on Christmas Day will be asking ”What the hell is this?” It won’t be traditional.’

Industry sources have told The Times that disruption could carry on for weeks, even if panic buying dies down, due to the time it would take to restock petrol stations. One source said they expected BP to keep tackling issues throughout next month.   

Despite appeals to motorists to fill up as normal, PRA executive director Gordon Balmer said forecourt staff were being subjected to a ‘high level’ of both physical and verbal abuse from frustrated motorists.

‘There are encouraging signs that the crisis at the pumps is easing, with forecourts reporting that they are taking further deliveries of fuel,’ he said. ‘However, we are extremely disappointed to hear many forecourt staff are experiencing a high level of both verbal and physical abuse, which is completely unacceptable. 

Earlier, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the situation appeared to be ‘stabilising’ with most people ‘behaving quite responsibly’. As well as deploying troops, he said the Government was sending out vehicles from its reserve tanker fleet, driven by civilian drivers, to provide ‘additional logistical capacity’ to the industry.

‘It takes, sometimes, a few days to get troops on the ground. We have decided to do that. I think in the next couple of days you will see some soldiers driving tankers,’ he said in a pooled clip for broadcasters.

Altogether 150 military drivers, together with 150 drivers’ mates, have been on standby since Monday to carry out deliveries to filling stations.  

In a joint statement following talks with Mr Kwarteng, representatives of the fuel industry welcomed the deployment of the reserve tankers and echoed his optimism the situation would continue to stabilise.

The signatories, including Shell, Esso and BP, said: ‘While there has always been plenty of fuel at our refineries and terminals, we are also now seeing signs that the situation at the pumps has begun to improve.’

AA president Edmund King said on Wednesday evening their evidence suggested the pressure at the pumps was easing, with a significant drop in members with ‘our of fuel’ breakdowns.

He said: ‘From speaking to patrols and employees, many of the garages we observed with queues yesterday, were generally functioning well and still had fuel. In general terms, London and the South East have been hit hardest and very few problems were seen in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

‘We still urge drivers to stick to their normal refuelling patterns and not rush to top up. We have had reports of drivers dribbling in £1.72p worth of petrol and £2.05 of diesel which is pretty counter-productive as they would had used those amounts searching for fuel.’

Despite the assurances from ministers, Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association in London, said there was little sign of the situation improving on the ground.

‘Contrary to Boris Johnson’s wish list, it is not getting better,’ he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

‘The situation is that 25% to 30% of our members were not at work yesterday, and unable get fuel to go to work, and a taxi driver without fuel is unemployed.’

Meanwhile the retail fashion giant Next said shortages would continue to plague the wider economy in the run-up to Christmas unless the Government took action to address the ‘looming skills crisis’.

It said the shortage of HGV drivers had been ‘widely predicted for many months’ and called on ministers to relax the immigration rules to avoid further shortfalls.

‘We anticipate that, without some relaxation of immigration rules, we are likely to experience some degradation in our service in the run-up to Christmas,’ it said.

‘For the sake of the wider UK economy, we hope that the Government will take a more decisive approach to the looming skills crisis in warehouses, restaurants, hotels, care homes and many seasonal industries.

‘A demand-led approach to ensuring the country has the skills it needs is now vital.’

The call came as figures from the Department for Transport showed there was a backlog of more than 56,000 applications for vocational driving licences, including HGV and bus, permits waiting to be processed.

Ministers have blamed the pandemic which led to the cancellation last year of tens of thousands of tests.

Speaking for the first time as the crisis approached a week, Boris Johnson on Tuesday urged frustrated drivers to remain calm as violent scenes compared to the ‘Wild West’ erupted at petrol stations around the country. 

Fist fights are regularly breaking out and one driver even appeared to threaten another with a knife. The ugly confrontations led to fears among police chiefs that officers may be drafted in to guard garages if the crisis continues. 

The Prime Minister was accused of a ‘half-baked’ response to the fuel crisis earlier tonight as he dismissed calls for key workers to get priority at petrol stations.  

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng was asked if he could guarantee that Christmas isn’t going to be affected by the fuel crisis and other issues such as the shortage of HGV drivers.

He replied: ‘I’m not guaranteeing anything. All I’m saying is I think the situation is stabilising. I think people realise that this will pass and we are very very focussed that we are getting enough drivers, we have stepped up military drivers and we are making sure we are getting petrol into the forecourts that can actually mean we have enough supply to meet demand. When we look at figures yesterday, it looks like the inflow of petrol matches the sales’.

He added that soldiers will be deployed to help ease the fuel crisis, telling Sky News: ‘It takes a couple of days, sometimes a few days to get troops on ground. People will see some soldiers driving tanker fleet’.

The PM has resisted calls for the Army to be called in but from today around 150 military hauliers are undergoing training to become fuel tanker drivers and are expected to qualify within the next few days. A government source said there were no plans to deploy them and that they would be on standby as ‘an insurance policy’.

There were tentative signs that the situation was improving last night, with the Petrol Retailers Association saying that around 37 per cent of the 5,500 independent forecourts it represents were out of fuel. This was down from between 50 per cent and 90 per cent the day before.

But the long queues remain, hitting those who need fuel to keep homes running, care for people in the community and keep the NHS ticking. 

School buses in Buckinghamshire have been disrupted – with the owner of one fleet saying it has become a ‘cat and mouse’ game to fill up, managing to find fuel at around 3am because some garages are refusing to let large vehicles use their pumps.

Buckingham Council tweeted: ‘Due to fuel shortages, there are a number of school buses cancelled. We apologise for the inconvenience this is causing. Parents and schools have been notified.’

Volunteers who deliver vital blood products to hospitals for the NHS have been hit by ‘frustrating’ fuel shortages. Up to half of ‘bloodrunners’ in Kent have been unable to go out on runs in recent days because of problems getting fuel. 

Johan Pieterse from SERV Kent, a charity that transports crucial blood products for hospitals in the county for free out of hours, said the challenges were ‘frustrating’. He said: ‘God forbid someone is in hospital needing a blood product or someone is at home and they can’t get it because we are stuck in queues of traffic’. 

Boris Johnson tried to calm the chaos by urging the public to ‘fill up in the normal way when you really need it’, although he also warned that the government is working on ‘getting through to Christmas and beyond’. 

But Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has now signed off the request for military assistance, with up to 300 troops able to be deployed if required. 

All military drivers are qualified to be behind the wheel of HGVs but they may need three days’ training to learn how to fill petrol stations with fuel. 

Risking infuriating motorists who have been facing extraordinary carnage across the country, Johnson earlier laid the blame on a ‘slightly misleading’ account of the shortages of lorry drivers causing an ‘understandable surge in public demand’.  

‘I would really urge everybody to go about their business in the normal way and fill up in the normal way when you really need it,’ he said.

‘What we want to do is to make sure we have all the preparations needed to get through to Christmas and beyond, not just in supply for petrol stations but all parts of the supply chain.’ 

Pressed on whether he would be calling it a crisis if anyone else was in No10, Mr Johnson said: ‘What we have is a recovery after a global pandemic.’ 

The intervention, in a statement from Downing Street, came as the Labour leader weighed in, saying the issues over drivers had been ‘entirely predictable’ and the government’s limp response had resulted in ‘chaos’. 

In a round of interviews from his party conference in Brighton, Sir Keir called for the length of emergency visas for foreign HGV drivers to be doubled to six months.

But he refused to say that Brexit was ‘to blame’, instead arguing that it was an inevitable consequence of the decision that was taken. Aides said the PM’s brief chat with broadcasters exposed that there was still ‘no plan’ and the government was complacent. 

The comments came as more fighting broke out on Britain’s ‘Wild West’ petrol forecourts, with drivers throwing punches and even pulling knives as violent rows broke out in the long queues.

However, minister insist there are ‘tentative’ signs the crisis will ease this week.

Mr Johnson was making his own position clear for the first time, as MPs slammed his decision not to bring in soldiers to deliver fuel immediately to ‘regain public confidence’ and petrol stations started rationing fuel sales at £30. 

Mr Johnson said: ‘I want to say, first of all, how much I sympathise with people who’ve been worried about their journeys, worried about whether they’ll be able to use their cars in the normal way, to see their loved ones or whatever it is, and I know how frustrating, infuriating it must have been to worry about shortage of petrol or fuel.

‘We now are starting to see the situation improve; we’re hearing from (the) industry that supplies are coming back on to the forecourt in the normal way.

‘I would just stress that on the forecourts the situation is stabilising and people should be confident and just go back to their business in the normal way.’

Asked whether he agreed that key workers needed priority at the pumps, Mr Johnson said he ‘understands why people say that’ but suggested that instead the situation should ‘stabilise in a normal way’.   

On the wider issues, the premier repeated his mantra that wages and training must improve for Britons, rather than bringing in more foreign labour.

‘The actual number of lorry drivers that we’re short in that particular sector isn’t very big. But generally there is a shortage in that profession around the world,’ he said.

‘And what we want to see is an emphasis on high wage, a high-skill, a high-productivity approach to our economy. 

‘What I don’t think people in this country want to do is fix all our problems with uncontrolled immigration. Again, we tried that for a long time – 20 years or so, perhaps longer.

‘And in the end, people could see that it was leading to a low-wage, low-skill approach without enough investment in people or in equipment, in capital. And that’s not the way we want the UK to develop and grow.’

Speaking to BBC News in Brighton, the Labour leader said: ‘The Government has reduced the country to chaos as we track from crisis to crisis and the Government is not gripping this.

‘I spoke to the haulage sector this morning to the businesses that are absolutely in the middle of this, and they are beyond frustrated and these were their words, they said it’s a Government that is denying there’s a problem, then blaming somebody else, and then coming up with a half-baked plan. What I would do is give priority to key workers this week.

‘And I would issue enough visas for lorry drivers for long enough. At the moment there was some talk this morning on the discussion that the pieces may not even begin until November. And we have to take action today.

‘The Prime Minister should take that action today, prioritise key workers and start issuing enough visas and for long enough. The strong view this morning was that three months visas won’t work, they’ve got to be six months visas.

‘But this problem was predictable and predicted and the Government has absolutely failed to plan.’

Sir Keir resisted blaming Brexit for the shortage of HGV drivers but accepted it was partly a consequence of leaving the European Union.

Speaking to Channel 5 News, the Labour leader said: ‘I wouldn’t say that Brexit is to blame. What I would say is that it was inevitable as we exited the EU that we needed a plan to deal with drivers. That is obvious whether you voted Remain or voted Leave, and we took that decision years ago.

‘And here we are with a shortage of drivers which was completely predictable and predicted – and the Government hasn’t got a plan.’

But later speaking to Sky News, Sir Keir said: ‘What is the sole cause of this problem? The Government has known for some time that there are consequences of us leaving the EU, one of which is lorry drivers.’

Earlier, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps claimed the pressure on filling stations is beginning to ease and insisted the Army would remain on standby despite admitting the queues will not disappear yet.  

‘There are now the first very tentative signs of stabilisation in forecourt storage which won’t be reflected in the queues as yet,’ he said in a pooled TV clip. 

‘But it is the first time that we have seen more petrol actually in the petrol stations. The sooner we can all return to our normal buying habits, the sooner the situation will return to normal.’ 

As one driver was seen filling mineral water bottles with petrol, he said: ‘No more water bottles at petrol stations: it’s dangerous and not helpful’.

New video has emerged of two men punching and kicking each other across a London Shell station in a row about whose turn it was to fill up. Two women yelling ‘what the f*** are you doing’ broke up the punch-up as one of the fighters pointed at his foe and yelled: ‘He stole my place’. 

Amid widespread scenes of enormous queueing across Britain’s forecourts, footage emerged of a man holding what appears to be a knife shouting at a driver outside a petrol station in Welling, south east London. The video then shows the car ramming into the alleged knifeman, who is then carried for several yards on the bonnet.  

And it is proving so difficult to get fuel, thieves have been siphoning it from cars, sometimes drilling into the petrol tank, Shadrack Olaloko, from Birmingham, said: ‘What these guys did was they came and drained out all my fuel in the tank’. 

The brawls broke out as motorists reported queues at 11pm, 3am and 5.30am across the UK as the Government was accused of being ‘asleep at the wheel’ and critics questioned claims within Whitehall that the crisis will be over within two to three days. 

Mike Granatt, former head of Britain’s civil contingencies secretariat, the section of the Cabinet Office responsible for emergency planning in the UK, said on Wednesday that the Prime Minister should give a TV press conference on the fuel crisis, as Tony Blair did in 2000. He said: ‘It’s called leadership. And we need some. Someone needs to stand up and say this to people rather than hide away’.

Tobias Ellwood, chair of Parliament’s Defence Committee, has said the army should be mobilised, not just put on standby, to ‘regain public confidence’ and stop the fuel crisis.

The Conservative MP told Sky News: ‘The country wants to see the Government is in command and it has a clear cross-Whitehall plan. 

‘We have gone from 1 per cent fuel pump shortages to 90 per cent so altering people’s buying behaviour to prevent the panic buying and going back to previous purchasing patterns requires regaining the confidence of the nation.

‘I believe the army should not just be put on standby but in fact mobilised, be seen to be used. 

That will help ease the pressure on shortages of course, it will return public confidence, and then on top of that there is the bigger issue about articulating a clear strategy to alleviate the chronic shortage of lorry drivers.’

Such is the panic at the pumps, hundreds more people than usual have been filling up on the wrong fuel. Around 250 flustered drivers have had to be rescued by the AA’s specialist ‘fuel assist’ team on Saturday and Sunday – compared to around 20 in normal circumstances. 

One tanker driver told LBC that even they are struggling for fuel because they are spending so much time in queues with drivers also blocking access to HGV pumps. 

An industry source said while the claim could be ‘credible’, it is likely to be an isolated incident.

Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, said Britain’s petrol stations had becoming the ‘Wild West’ after he queued for fuel only for it to sell out before everyone got to the pumps. 

He said: ‘Man behind me was furious and started punching the guard’, adding it ‘became a melee of 8-10 men on the ground, punching and kicking’. 

The Government is putting the military on standby after a widespread shortage of truck drivers, which has led to serious supply problems for retailers and restaurants in the past few months, meaning plentiful stocks of fuel have not reached filling stations. 

But critics have said Boris Johnson has known for months that there is a lack of HGV drivers but ministers have had had their ‘heads in the sand’. The Prime Minister has 150 soldiers ready to drive tankers but they will not be brought in yet with one Government source telling The Times: ‘We believe that the crisis will recede in the next few days’.

Grant Shapps has rejected criticism that the Government has been too slow to mobilise the Army to help deal with the fuel crisis.

Ministers announced on Monday they were putting troops on standby to deliver supplies as filling stations continued to run dry.

In a pool clip for broadcasters, Mr Shapps said: ‘There is a series of escalations that you go through in a crisis like this.

‘We have already put 18 different steps in place which stretch right the way back to the spring.

‘The system was just about coping until last weekend and it would have been capable of continuing to do so.

‘Unfortunately, as we have seen with toilet rolls and other things, once people start to pursue a particular item, it can quickly escalate.

‘But there is only so much petrol you can transfer into tanks. That is starting to work its way through.’  

He said that Brexit has been a ‘factor’ in the current fuel crisis.

Mr Shapps said the primary cause of the shortages had been the cancellation of HGV driver testing last year due to the pandemic.

However, he added: ‘Brexit I hear mentioned a lot and it no doubt will have been a factor.

‘On the other hand, it has actually helped us to change rules to be able to test more drivers more quickly.

‘So, it has actually worked in both ways.’

Mr Shapps condemned motorists who tried to fill up plastic water bottles with petrol as the panic buying continued.

‘It is dangerous and extremely unhelpful,’ he said.

Under an emergency government plan, key workers could be given ‘priority access’ to a number of petrol stations. The plan involves capping the amount of fuel drivers can buy and letting critical workers have ‘priority access’ to pumps, The Telegraph reports. 

Another option, the designated filling station scheme, could see ’emergency and critical service vehicles’ having priority access. This was done by Tony Blair’s government during the 2000 fuel crisis. 

Some areas have already seen bin collections cancelled, and teaching unions have warned that schools could need to go back to online learning if teachers cannot drive to work. 

A 49-year-old woman, whose parents both have terminal cancer, fears she will be unable to reach the hospital in an emergency after her car ran out of fuel.

The woman from Wilmslow, Cheshire – who did not wish to give her name – said she had to abandon her vehicle in a car park with a message in the window.

‘In a nutshell, if I get a call to hospital I’d not have the diesel to make the journey – very stressful and upsetting, to be honest,’ she told the PA news agency.

‘I’ve had to abandon my car at three miles… (I) left it in the car park with a message in the window explaining why the car has been left and walked home. I just have to hope the car is safe overnight.

‘I won’t be able to see my dad or, in an emergency, (won’t be) able to go to the hospital.’

Volunteers who deliver vital blood products to hospitals for the NHS in Kent have been hit by ‘frustrating’ fuel shortages, a charity says.

Johan Pieterse, secretary and trustee for SERV Kent, said: ‘We have had a drop-off of about 50 per cent of our members who can’t go on rota because they can’t get fuel since Friday night.

‘It’s frustrating because we don’t see the need for the panic buying and all it’s doing is it’s affecting all emergency services, not just us.

‘God forbid someone is in hospital needing a blood product or someone is at home and they can’t get it because we are stuck in queues of traffic.’

Mr Pieterse said that while the charity has managed to cover all its pick-ups and deliveries, some had been delayed and they had been unable to access their headquarters because of queuing traffic.

Pressure on filling stations is starting to ease although demand for fuel remains ‘well above the norm’, the chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association has said.

Brian Madderson said there were indications of ‘a move towards equilibrium’ later in the week.

‘The extreme demand levels witnessed over the weekend have eased somewhat,’ he told Sky News.

‘There are still demand levels well above the norm and as a result many of our members have sites dry. Many of the big groups are down to around 50% of their sites.

‘There is still a problem out there. There is still a bit of panic buying, there is still queuing, but we are hopeful that we are seeing the first signs of a move towards equilibrium later in the week.’

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has said health and care workers should be given priority at petrol pumps to prevent ‘people losing their lives’. 

After a dizzying 24 hours of dithering over the use of soldiers to plug the HGV driver gap, ministers agreed to put the Army on standby. It is hoped that panic-buying will ease this week to reduce pressure on fuel supplies. But if the crisis does not abate, ministers will trigger ‘Operation Escalin’.

About 150 military tanker drivers were put into a state of readiness under the operation, sources said. Some of them will receive further training in the next few days to be able to deliver fuel if required. The operation, originally conceived in case of a no-deal Brexit, could potentially see hundreds of troops brought in to help.   

Chairman of the British Medical Association council, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, told The Times that ‘everyone will have their own reasons for needing to fill up, but as pumps run dry there is a real risk that NHS staff won’t be able to do their jobs and provide vital services and care to people who urgently need it’.