MOTORISTS continued to flock to fill their tanks across Dorset for a fifth day - as the transport secretary said Brexit has been a 'factor' in the current fuel crisis.
Thousands of drivers have been scrambling to fuel stations across the county amid a shortage of HGV drivers causing fuel delivery delays.
The panic has seen long queues backing up from forecourts across the county and left some stations without fuel.
Other industries are also being impacted because of the fuel shortage, with last night's match between Truro City and Dorchester Town postponed, along with tonight's clash between Gosport Borough and Wimborne Town.
Dorset Council, Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service and Dorset Police have pleaded with people to behave sensibly and not panic buy.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said said that Brexit has been a “factor” in the current situation.
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.
In response, shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the HGV driver crisis was a 'catastrophic failure of leadership' by the Government.
He said: "We find ourselves in this position because of a complete failure of the Government to lead and to plan ahead.
“I wrote to Grant Shapps back in July highlighting these issues. We got very short shrift from Grant Shapps, who wrote back to us in the first week of August saying, in his words, that he wouldn’t be using foreign labour to solve this issue.
"I’m absolutely in favour of training up HGV drivers, but it hasn’t done that to a sufficient extent, nor has it until recently made a very small concession on being able to bring drivers in from abroad.
"This is a catastrophic failure of leadership, it looks like we’ve ended up with petrol running out, the Prime Minister talking about bringing the army in, this is a crisis of the Government’s own making."
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