Priti Patel tries to blame Labour for fuel shortages

Home Secretary passes blame to opposition

Priti Patel has tried to blame the opposition Labour Party for fuel shortages, as petrol stations close across Britain.

Some forecourts have run out of fuel over the weekend amid a perfect storm of environmental protests, increased post-lockdown demand, and the war in Ukraine.

Activists from the Just Stop Oil group have blocked the entrances outside key terminals across the country and made it hard to move fuel in and out.

Depots hit include those in Warwickshire, Hertfordshire and Essex – disrupting onward deliveries to petrol stations across the south east and midlands.

But speaking to the Conservative-supporting Daily Mail newspaper Home Secretary claimed it was "selfish" to protest against and disrupt the polluting industry.

And she tried to link the protests to Labour by highlighting that the party had not supported new draconian new police powers in the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Bill.

The bill has repeatedly been rejected by peers from across parties in the House of Lords on the basis that it undermines the right to protest – including banning noisy and annoying demonstrations and criminalising protesters locking themselves to thing.

But the Home Secretary said: "Hard-working people across our country are seeing their lives brought to a standstill by selfish, fanatical and frankly dangerous so-called activists.

"Keir Starmer's Labour Party repeatedly voted against our proposals that would have given the police extra powers to deal with this eco mob. The police have my full backing in doing everything necessary to address this public nuisance."

The claim is misleading because police are already able to arrest such protesters under existing laws, such as public order offences or obstruction of a highway.

Protesters say they have dug a tunnel under a road to block deliveries to the Kingsbury oil terminal in Warwickshire; they have also locked themselves to the gates of the Buncefield terminal in Hertfordshire and disrupted the Exolum storage terminal in Grays, Essex.

The group wants ministers to agree to stop all new fossil fuel investments in light of the climate emergency - but the government this year has said it is pressing ahead with new drilling and has asked the industry to write its own environmental rulebook.

The department for business, energy and industrial strategy has claimed "all fuel supply points are fully operational" in an apparent bid to reduce panic-buying and petrol stations run dry.