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Pandemonium at the pumps: Police shut garages and profiteers look to cash in on fuel chaos.... with EVERYONE blaming No.10 incompetence
- Motorists besieged garages and lengthy queues formed around the country following advice by ministers to fill their tanks
- Prices soared and more than 100 forecourts ran dry with others closed on the orders of police worried about ‘fuel rage'
- The AA blames the shambles on the Government saying the ‘unnecessary and self-inflicted’ shortages were due to poor advice
- Retailers warned last night that large parts of the country could run out of fuel by the end of today if the panic continued
- Sales of petrol cans soared 500 per cent and the Treasury enjoyed a £33million tax windfall from extra fuel sales
By JAMES CHAPMAN and RAY MASSEY
Panic buying, police closures and profiteering brought chaos to filling stations yesterday.
Prompted by ministers to fill their tanks to beat a strike that has not even been called, motorists besieged garages and lengthy queues formed around the country.
Prices soared and more than 100 forecourts ran dry. Others were shut on the orders of police worried about ‘fuel rage’. The AA blamed the shambles on the Government, saying the ‘unnecessary and self-inflicted’ shortages were due to poor advice.
Scroll down to watch video of the panic buying
Chaos: Prompted by ministers to fill their tanks, motorists besieged garages and lengthy queues formed around the country yesterday. Community Support Officers manage the traffic queuing outside a Total service station in Christchurch, Dorset
Hazard: Queues like this one on a main road in Christchurch, Dorset, led to police ordering the closure of the county's garages for safety reasons
Run dry: Even though a strike date hasn't been announced, the threat of one has been enough to drastically deplete stocks, such as is the case with this station in North Shields
It urged motorists to ignore suggestions to fill up their tanks. The Petrol Retailers Association said ministers had been ‘irresponsible’ and were at fault for the panic buying.
Retailers warned last night that large parts of the country could run out of fuel by the end of today if the panic continued.
Some garages had pushed prices well above even the record averages set yesterday of 140.9p per litre for unleaded and 147.1p for diesel.
In places as far apart as Gateshead in the North East and Chorleywood in Hertfordshire, motorists were having to pay an extra 3p to 4p overnight.
Advice: PCSOs tell the manager of a Total service station in Christchurch, Dorset, to close temporarily
Overflow: A motorist fills up a jerry can as a long queue backs up behind him at a Texaco garage in west Sussex, 2.8miles from the house of Cabinet minister Francis Maude, who sparked confusion by suggesting drivers should store fuel at home
Number Ten and the Cabinet Office stand accused of issuing conflicting and shifting guidance. They were acting on advice from officials that, typically, motorists drive around with tanks just a third full, meaning industrial action could trigger gridlock within two days. By filling up, a strike would take a week to bite.
But even some Cabinet members were privately questioning the official line, fearing the Government will look ridiculous if the strike by tanker drivers over working conditions is called off.
The suggestion from Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude that motorists fill jerry cans with petrol and store them in the garage has already had to be withdrawn following safety warnings. But Energy Secretary Ed Davey insisted: ‘People just need to do the sensible thing if they’re going into the petrol station. They should get a full tank of petrol, not a half-tank ... and they should top up where necessary.’
He said he realised that some people might struggle to pay for a full tank but should fill up nevertheless.
Motorists reacted furiously with Glasgow taxi driver John MacLean, 66, saying: ‘Someone should plaster the Prime Minister’s mouth shut and Francis Maude is even worse, telling people to store fuel. I think we will run out by the end of the week and if I don’t get any fuel I’m out of business.’
Labour leader Ed Miliband yesterday accused the Government of ‘playing politics with petrol’.
Packed: This Tesco petrol station at the Mayflower Retail Park in Basildon Essex is swamped by desperate drivers
Taking precautions: TV reality star Lydia Bright from The Only Way Is Essex joins the army of panic buyers
Keeping motorists at bay: A security guard directs traffic to petrol pumps at Morrisons in Derby amid panic buying
No extra here: Huge queues wait for petrol at a Tesco filling station in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
Opposition MPs noted the first warnings on the need to fill up came as the Conservatives were reeling from revelations that their treasurer had boasted he could secure dinner invitations to the Prime Minister’s homes in return for six-figure donations.
Some Tories appear to have realised the looming tanker strike, being threatened by Unite, represented a chance to shift the focus onto Labour’s finances.
The union is easily Labour’s biggest financial backer, having donated £5million to the party since Mr Miliband – who it helped install as leader – took over.
Unite and the haulage companies were last night heading toward the prospect of peace talks next week. The threat to the Easter holiday has receded because the union must give seven days of notice of industrial action.
Petrol sales, which rose by 81 per cent on Wednesday, were thought to have risen even higher yesterday. Sales of petrol cans soared 500 per cent, and the Treasury enjoyed a £33million tax windfall from extra fuel sales.
All out: It was a similar story at this Esso station in Wednesfield in the West Midlands
Topping up: Tanker drivers replenish stocks at a garage in Weymouth, a town which had all but run out of diesel by yesterday
Soldiers at the ready: Army personnel are being trained to drive the tankers and are on standby to maintain essential supplies
Dorset police announced they had been forced to ask a small number of petrol stations to close temporarily because of traffic disruption on adjoining roads.
‘The actions of some motorists in queuing irresponsibly at petrol stations is causing danger to other road users,’ said Chief Inspector Nick Maton. ‘There is no disruption to the fuel supply in the UK and members of the public should not panic buy.’
In Wilmslow, in Cheshire, there were dramatic price differences at the town’s four big petrol stations – meaning some saw long queues and others were empty.
Resident Fiona Barrett, 56, said: ‘We’ve got everything from garages that can’t handle demand to those charging a crazy price. The town is well served by petrol stations and normally the prices are competitively close.’
Closed: Police had to shut down this garage in Christchurch, Dorset, because the tailback of cars was causing a hazard to traffic as motorists made a desperate bid to top up following news of possible fuel tanker strikes
Blunder: Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude suggested motorists fill up jerry cans, right, to avoid shortages
It is understood that areas most under threat of shortages are in the North and Midlands, and parts of the South, supplied by ConocoPhilips and Texaco.
Transport minister Mike Penning said Francis Maude had made a mistake by advising drivers to fill up jerry cans, not knowing they were too big for storage.
Petrol Retailers Association spokesman Keely Scanlan said: ‘The Government was entirely responsible for the chaos on Wednesday. They were irresponsible and shouldn’t have made any announcement as people started panic buying.
‘They don’t know if there’s going to be a strike and stations are still getting petrol delivered, so if people just leave it alone and carry on as normal then it will be fine.
‘The Government haven’t even been in touch with us at all.’
Union boss who controls Labour cash
Conflict: Ed Miliband was under growing pressure to condemn plans for the fuel strike after it emerged the union official behind the dispute is the Treasurer of the Labour Party, Diana Holland, pictured
Ed Miliband was under growing pressure to condemn plans for the fuel strike last night after it emerged the union official behind the dispute is the Treasurer of the Labour Party.
Diana Holland, Assistant General Secretary of Unite, is in charge of negotiations for the tanker drivers.
But in a clear example of the stranglehold that union paymasters have over Labour, she is also the party’s chief fundraiser.
Unite has bankrolled Labour to the tune of £5million since Mr Miliband became leader – double the amount handed over by the GMB, the second biggest donor.
Details of her double role immediately attracted accusations of a conflict of interest.
Research of Electoral Commission files also showed that more than half of Labour MPs have taken money from Unite or its predecessor unions.
Ed Miliband’s leadership campaign relied on donations of £115,000 from Unite, who are widely credited with securing his victory over his brother.
But others who have taken Unite’s money include shadow cabinet members Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper, Harriet Harman, Rachel Reeves, Chuka Umunna, Angela Eagle, Maria Eagle, Ivan Lewis, Liam Byrne and Michael Dugher.
In total the union has funded 148 out of Labour’s 258 MPs.
Diana Holland has been the public face of the strike, arguing that it is about safety standards in the tanker industry not pay and conditions. Yet Unite documents explaining their approach to the strike show the ‘dispute was sparked by plans to cut pay’.
She has been a Labour Party member for more than 25 years and has served for 16 on the party’s ruling National Executive Committee.
In September 2010, she defeated John Prescott, to become Labour’s treasurer, largely because she was the favoured candidate of Unite, who also sponsored her predecessor. Mr Prescott beat Holland in the members’ section of the electoral college with 62 per cent of the vote, but Holland won overall because she got virtually all the votes in the union section.
Unite represents around 2,000 drivers, who deliver fuel to Shell and Esso garages as well as supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s, covering 90 per cent of the UK’s forecourts. They are paid on average twice as much as regular HGV drivers in the UK.
Yesterday Mr Miliband said: ‘Strikes should be avoided at all costs. That means getting both sides negotiating through Acas.’
But Tory Party Chairman Baroness Warsi said: ‘These double standards are exactly what we’ve come to expect from the Labour party. Ed Miliband says he wants to avoid strike action - but now we find his own Party Treasurer is the one threatening it. More than half of Labour MPs have had their campaigns bankrolled by the trade union threatening to disrupt the lives of millions and bring our economy to its knees.
‘They must condemn Unite’s unnecessary action and refuse to take any more money from their paymaster until the union withdraws its threat. Ed Miliband has a duty to stop being weak and put real pressure on his union godfather, Len McCluskey, to call off his irresponsible strike.’
Earlier this week, Unite General Secretary Mr McCluskey boasted that Labour is ‘our party’ and that he has access to Ed Miliband ‘every three or four weeks’.
VIDEO: Queues for petrol are spreading across the length and breadth of the country
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2121984/Pandemonium-pumps-Police-shut-garages-profiteers-look-cash-fuel-chaos---EVERYONE-blames-No-10-incompetence.html#ixzz1qYhxdUbR
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