Tory MP says supermarket shortages are in UK’s ‘long-term interest’
A Conservative MP has today said it is in the UK’s “long-term interest” for supermarkets to face crippling shortages and that he would like more local producers to be able to sell their milk in village shops.
West Dorset MP Chris Loder told a fringe event at the Tory party conference in Manchester that it would be a good thing if “logistics chains do break” as the UK faces goods and petrol shortages.
Petrol shortages are still being seen in London and the South East, while pictures of empty supermarket shelves across the country have been splashed across newspaper frontpages this week.
Boris Johnson admitted today that the shortages could last until Christmas, however Loder said this would not be a bad thing.
“It is in our mid and long-term interest that these logistics chains do break,” he said.
“It will mean the farmer down the street will be able to sell their milk in the village shop like they did decades ago. It is because these commercial predators – that is the supermarkets – have wiped that out and I’d like to see that come back.”
The Road Haulage Association claims that there is now a shortage of 100,000 drivers in the UK, with wages in the sector skyrocketing to try and attract workers.
The government unveiled a package of measures to try and get more lorries back on the roads last week, including recruiting former HGV drivers and streamlining the HGV licence test process.
Johnson also agreed to issue visas for 5,000 lorry drivers to come into the country from the EU in an attempt to abate the shortages, however he said this was not a long-term solution.
“What we had for decades was a system whereby basically the road haulage industry…was not investing in the truck stops, not improving conditions, not improving pay and we relied on very hard working people to come in largely from European accession countries to do that work under those conditions. That is why that job with that pay and those conditions is not currently attractive,” Johnson said.