First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has voiced her “very real concerns” about Christmas being disrupted by the current HGV, labour and fuel crises.
Ms Sturgeon was in Dundee on Wednesday morning for an announcement on 2,000 new jobs for Social Security Scotland, the “bulk” of which will be situated in the city.
Her comments on Christmas come after a weekend of disruption at petrol stations across the country, as people queued for hours to fill their cars.
A shortage in HGV drivers has been blamed and British Army soldiers will begin training to help deliver fuel supplies as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was making preparations to deal with potential problems until “Christmas and beyond”.
The prime minister said the situation on the filling station forecourts is “stabilising” as he urged motorists to go about their business in the normal way, while Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng denied the scenario had been a “crisis”.
Christmas disruption
Asked by this paper about her concerns of Christmas disruption, Ms Sturgeon said: “We’ve got a very difficult winter ahead, because of Covid and the decisions we still have to take to keep the economy open.
“There are very real concerns about supply chains, about the ability to get food and other products flowing to where they need to be.
“That raises concerns about the period ahead generally and obviously as we get to this time of year, people start to think about Christmas.
“The Scottish Government will do everything we can on the Covid front, on every front, to make sure Christmas is as normal and enjoyable for people as is possible.
“But the UK Government is in the lead in sorting out these problems so not that just Christmas isn’t disrupted, but we don’t have Brexit-caused disruption, over a winter when we’re already dealing with real and very big challenges.”
Warnings
Fashion retailer Next has said it could not guarantee a normal Christmas service and said it was likely to to experience “some degradation” as the festive season approached without a relaxation of the immigration rules.
Drivers are being warned that fuel prices could reach record levels even if the current crisis ends.
The RAC said average prices may hit 143p per litre for petrol and 145p per litre for diesel in the next few weeks.
That is up from the current level of 135p per litre for petrol and 138p per litre for diesel.
The highest average price for petrol is 142p per litre, which was recorded in April 2012.