Grant Shapps today claimed the fuel crisis has been 'manufactured' as he accused haulage firms of sparking panic buying after they warned of HGV driver shortages.
The Transport Secretary said 'there is plenty of fuel' to go around as he urged motorists to be 'sensible' and to 'fill up when you normally would'.
He said the rush to forecourts which has seen lengthy queues at stations across the country 'will come to an end' because soon 'everyone's cars will be more or less filled up'.
Mr Shapps said the chaos is a 'manufactured situation' in comments likely to spark fury among retailers and transport bosses.
It came as experts warned panic buying 'is going to get worse before it gets better' as the nation faces a 'catastrophic situation'.
Grant Shapps today claimed the fuel crisis has been 'manufactured' as he accused haulage firms of sparking panic buying after they warned of HGV driver shortages
The Transport Secretary said 'there is plenty of fuel' to go around as he urged motorists to be 'sensible' and to 'fill up when you normally would'
Experts warned panic buying 'is going to get worse before it gets better' as the nation faces a 'catastrophic situation'
There is an estimated shortfall of 90,000 HGV drivers in the UK freight sector.
The Government has announced plans to offer 5,000 three-month visas to foreign lorry drivers in a short term bid to ease pressure on supply chains.
The announcement came after scenes of lengthy queues at petrol stations after a shortage of fuel tanker drivers forced some retailers to shut their pumps and ration sales.
The British Retail Consortium and the British Chamber of Commerce criticised the scope of the measures revealed by Mr Shapps yesterday which were seen by some as a step back from Boris Johnson's stated ambition to create a high-wage, high-skilled post-Brexit economy.
Mr Shapps today insisted there is 'plenty' of petrol as he urged motorists to refrain from panic buying.
He told Sky News there had been some 'pretty irresponsible briefing' by one of the road haulage associations 'which has helped spark a crisis'.
He said: 'I do not believe… that the long term solution to Britain's shortages of HGV drivers is to say the only choice we have is to import the European drivers, under cut British salaries and not skill up people to do the job here in the United Kingdom so that is absolutely right.
'I also recognise and am completely pragmatic about this, that we need to ensure that people are reassured now that this rather sort of manufactured situation has been created because as I say there is enough petrol in the country, it is if everyone goes and buys it on the same day...'
Presenter Trevor Phillips interrupted and said: 'Hang on. When you say this was a manufactured situation, manufactured by whom? How?'
Mr Shapps replied: 'Well, as I say, there was a meeting that took place about 10 days ago, a private meeting in which one of the haulage associations decided to leak the details to the media and that has created, as we have seen, quite a large degree of concern, people naturally react to those things.
'The good news is, as I say, there is plenty of fuel. The bad news is if everyone carries on buying it when they don't need it then you would continue to have queues.
'Sooner or later everyone's cars will be more or less filled up and there won't be anywhere else to put fuel - it is not like the toilet roll crisis at the beginning of the pandemic where people could stockpile it. It is very difficult to do that with fuel and so it will come to an end.
'But we just appeal to people to be sensible, fill up when you normally would.'
Retail bosses fear the panic buying will continue as motorists continue the
