Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives at the annual Conservative party conference in Manchester, England on October 2, 2021. LONDON, Oct 2 Reuters - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday that he would keep immigration rules under review and did not rule out issuing temporary visas in an effort to help ease a tanker driver shortage which has led to fuel shortages.
Britain said last week it would issue temporary visas for 5,000 foreign truck drivers and 5,500 poultry workers to try to solve acute labour shortages that disrupted the supply of fuel to gas stations and cause difficulties in food production. Britain's Road Haulage Association RHA says the country faces a shortage of some 100,000 drivers, a result of workers leaving the industry, the pandemic testing and training for about a year, and post-Brexit immigration rules which inhibit hiring drivers from Europe.
In a speech to reporters during the visit to a hospital, Johnson did not rule out the possibility of issuing more temporary visas.
What we have now is a system that gives us flexibility and permits immigration control. We can open our markets if we need to, and of course we'll keep everything under review, Johnson said.
The government has said 200 military tanker personnel will help deliver fuel from Monday. What we don't want to do is go back to a situation where we basically allowed the low wage trade industry to be sustained with a lot of road haulage immigration Johnson said.