Edge's News: Boris Johnson admits only 127 EU Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) drivers have applied for emergency visas......

The UK petrol crisis has sent the salaries of drivers of heavy goods vehicles (HGV) through the roof as demand continues to soar, local media has reported. According to the employment website Indeed, even a trainee driver with no experience can earn 24,000 pounds a year, with the figure rising to more than 30,000 pounds once they qualify.

Drivers with experience can expect salaries of 50,000 and 55,000 pounds a year plus a bonus scheme. According to The Times, the current shortage of HGV drivers has seen people from all walks of life – bankers, chefs, and shop workers – seek work in the industry. An increasing number of women have also recently chosen to become drivers, the outlet notes.

Speaking from the Conservative party conference in Manchester, the Prime Minister blamed a global shortage of lorry drivers for recent supply chain issues.

Just 127 foreign HGV drivers have applied to work in Britain under the Government’s emergency scheme to tackle the petrol crisis, the Prime Minister has said.

The figure makes up less than half of the initial 300 visas made available for overseas lorry drivers in efforts to plug a nationwide shortage ahead of the busy winter trading season. 

Boris Johnson rebuffed reports that a mere 27 EU fuel tanker drivers have applied to the programme so far, claiming the figure was actually 127. 

Speaking to BBC Breakfast from the Conservative party conference in Manchester, he blamed a global shortage of lorry drivers for recent supply chain issues. 

Mr Johnson also accused the road haulage industry of failing to improve tough conditions, following reports that truck drivers have been forced to sleep in their vehicles and urinate in bushes in recent weeks. 

The Prime Minister said the sector risked a return to the “old failed model” of overdependence on low-wage, low-skilled labour, which he campaigned against ahead of the Brexit referendum. 

“Very often very hard-working, brave, wonderful people come in working in conditions that frankly are pretty tough and we shouldn’t be going back to that,” he said. 

The Prime Minister refused to admit Britain is currently in the grips of a crisis, telling the BBC: “It’s an extremely interesting moment. It’s primarily a shortage of labour,” before adding that supply issues have been placed under pressure by “a giant waking up’ of global economies.

It comes after the Government last month unveiled plans to recruit 5,000 foreign haulage drivers over the next few weeks to ease pressure on deliveries in the run-up to Christmas. 

But road haulage chiefs warned that failure to address the estimated 100,000 shortfall of lorry drivers will see the fuel crisis prolonged. 

There were signs of mild improvement at the pumps on Monday, though around a fifth of petrol stations in London and the southeast remain out of fuel.

Rod McKenzie, policy director at the Road Haulage Association (RHA), told i last week that the HGV crisis could last a year if emergency visa uptake fails to get off the ground, and that it is unlikely that Christmas this year will be “normal” for many families.

Speaking on LBC this morning, Mr Johnson said: “I sympathise very much with the frustrations of people who’ve been queuing for petrol, I really, really do.

“I  understand how infuriating it is when you can’t get petrol at the pumps, I really understand that. But I must repeat, that this has been overwhelmingly a problem of demand and not supply. You know what I mean by that.”

It comes amid concerns that Britain is facing a cost-of- living crisis this winter, fuelled by the soaring price of natural gas and its knock-on effect across supply chains.

The Prime Minister struck a more downbeat tone on Tuesday, admitting that “there are going to be difficulties that we have to address,” but added that decreasing unemployment and steady wage growth would temper the effects of recent crises. 

Mr Johnson’s claims about recent wage growth have been contested, with many accusing the Prime Minister of being “misleading” by comparing salary rates with last year, when much of the country was on furlough.