Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu blamed the ongoing food and labour shortages in the UK on Brexit during a fiery guest appearance on the Jeremy Vine Show. This earned a fierce rebuke from fellow guest panellist Andrew Pierce. He swiftly shut down Dr Shola’s argument, suggesting that British workers were now getting “paid proper wages” because of Brexit and that there are HGV driver shortages across the EU too.
Dr Shola launched in a furious tirade blaming Brexit, saying: “Why do we have these food shortages? Brexit.
“We also have these food shortages because of immigration rules. Why is that? Brexit.
“And of course, it has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
“Maybe Brexiteers should step up to the plate and get rationed food.”
JUST IN: Ruth Davidson interrupts Robert Peston in heated gas price rant
Andrew Pierce hit back: “I would have thought that people like Shola would welcome the fact that one of the advantages of Brexit is that we are going to have to start paying people proper wages.
“The supply of cheap imported labour from Eastern Europe has ground to a halt. Very good.
“Ocado and Waitrose are now paying their HGV drivers a lot more money
“There are also shortages of HGV drivers in Poland and Germany.
“They are still in the EU, Shola, so don’t blame it on Brexit.”
Overnight, Tesco warned its customers to expect a return of panic buying in the run-up to Christmas.
Food supply chains have been placed under intense stress in the UK in part due to a shortage of around 100,000 HGV drivers.
Scenes of empty shelves in supermarkets have spread around the country.
However, the Government has so far rejected calls to ease restrictions on foreign workers, instead insisting firms recruit from a pool of British workers.
A separate shortage in CO2 could soon hit supplies of meat, poultry and fizzy drinks within just two weeks.