There would be no fuel crisis if the government used the plans we put in place in 2012

As energy secretary, I drew up contingency plans to deal with a driver shortage – why were troops not already on standby to drive HGVs? The prime minister has put Brexit ideology above basic needs

The chaotic scenes unfolding across the country in recent days have been truly shocking. We are seeing nurses, care workers and teachers all struggling to get the fuel they need to travel to work, while families and businesses are facing untold disruption to their lives. The government’s failure to get to grips with this crisis is having devastating consequences. Vulnerable people are going without the care they need, while children could face missing out on yet more education at a time when they should be catching up from the pandemic.


But the real tragedy is that all of this was wholly avoidable. It didn’t take a genius to predict that Brexit would lead to a fall in EU nationals working as HGV drivers in the UK. In fact, the transport industry has been warning the government for months that urgent action was needed to address the chronic shortage of drivers. Back in June, the Road Haulage Association set out a list of 12 demands to help resolve the issue, including classing HGV drivers as skilled workers to make it easier to recruit them from abroad, and improving conditions in the sector.

But instead of listening to these calls, the government ploughed ahead regardless, putting their anti-immigration Brexit ideology above the needs of the country. Even worse, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, this weekend shamefully tried to pass the buck by claiming the whole fuel crisis was being caused by the public and the road haulage industry.

The transport secretary first promised last week to “move heaven and earth” to tackle the issue and said all measures were being considered. That was hardly going to calm people’s nerves. Then when people inevitably started to rush out to fill up their cars, he blamed the public instead of taking responsibility. This is typical of what we’ve come to expect from this incompetent Conservative government. First, they fail to plan ahead, then they blame everyone but themselves for the ensuing disaster.

Ministers’ catastrophic approach to public messaging could have been avoided by learning the lessons from the fuel crisis in 2012. Back then, Conservative minister Francis Maude set off a wave of panic buying after recklessly encouraging motorists to fill up jerrycans with petrol, ahead of a potential fuel tanker drivers’ strike – despite being warned not to by other ministers.

I was then tasked with cleaning up the mess he caused and avoiding a damaging strike. So, as energy and climate change secretary, I was asked to chair the government’s Cobra committee that led to these preparations. One of my first moves to end panic buying was to stop ministers from going out onto the airwaves. That way, the danger of mixed messages was avoided and calm was rapidly restored – a lesson this government clearly forgot or ignored.

I also worked with the Ministry of Defence to draw up and implement contingency plans so the country had more than 1,000 military drivers trained to drive fuel tankers if needed. After the strike action was successfully avoided, we decided to add permanently to the training of military HGV drivers, so we would always have around 800 military personnel trained and on standby to drive fuel tankers.

I was therefore surprised when the government finally announced this week that it would be using the military to drive fuel tankers, that it would take almost a week to mobilise and train them. Why were the troops not already on standby? Why had the measures I put in place after the last fuel crisis caused by a Tory minister seemingly been ditched?

The utter shambles of the last few days has revealed just how out of touch Boris Johnson’s government is. The public will rightly be angry that their lives have been thrown into turmoil yet again by the Conservatives’ failure to predict how damaging their own policies will be.

This issue goes far wider than the immediate fuel crisis – from staffing shortages to rising food prices and energy bills, the failure of Boris Johnson and his ministers to plan ahead is hurting our economy and hitting us all in the pocket. Come the next election, we must seize the opportunity to get rid of this shockingly inept government, so competent ministers can deliver the fair deal people deserve.

Ed Davey is the leader of the Liberal Democrats