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An advert for the night tube at an entrance to Oxford Circus underground station, in London, as the new night tube service launches on August 19 operating on Friday and Saturday nights.


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Still from Lise McNally's sitdown interview. Available to use. 

The prime minister has criticised Mayor Sadiq Khan's plans to charge motorists driving into Greater London.

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Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick

Labour MP Harriet Harman asked the Home Secretary to take action after Wayne Couzens was sentenced to life for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

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Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has suggested offenders who have been given community sentences could be used to address the country’s lack of HGV drivers amid continuing concerns about fuel shortages.

Panic buying sparked by concerns a lack of lorry drivers would prevent supplies reaching fuel pumps has brought long queues and pockets of aggression at petrol station forecourts over the last few days.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has announced soldiers could be drafted in to drive tankers in the next couple of days to help alleviate the problem.

Mr Raab, who was made Justice Secretary in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent ministerial reshuffle, has dismissed Labour’s call for 100,000 migrant visas to be issued to provide sufficient drivers.

The former Foreign Secretary said the move would leave the country reliant in the long term on labour coming from abroad, and instead suggested the gap could be filled in another way.

“We’ve been getting prisoners and offenders to do volunteering and unpaid work,” Mr Raab told The Spectator, in comments carried by The Times.

“Why not if there are shortages encourage them to do paid work where there’s a benefit for the economy, benefit for society?

“If you give people skin in the game, give them something to lose, if you give them some hope, they’re much less likely to re-offend.”

It comes as motorists say there is still not enough fuel despite The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA)’s latest survey of its members finding just over one-in-four had run dry, down from more than a third on Tuesday.

Ministers said they expected the situation to improve further, with the first troops driving tankers expected to appear on the roads “in the next couple of days”.

Some roads around London have become gridlocked as motorists hunted for stations that have fuel, with some carrying petrol cans, plastic jugs and water bottles to stock up, and there were even reports of violence in a handful of places.

PRA executive director Gordon Balmer said forecourt staff were being subjected to a “high level” of physical and verbal abuse from frustrated motorists.

“There are encouraging signs that the crisis at the pumps is easing, with forecourts reporting that they are taking further deliveries of fuel,” he said in a statement.

“However, we are extremely disappointed to hear many forecourt staff are experiencing a high level of both verbal and physical abuse, which is completely unacceptable.”

His warning comes amid reports of fights breaking out on forecourts with, in one case, footage appearing on social media of a man wielding a knife, as tempers boiled over during long waits to fill up.

Earlier, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the situation appeared to be “stabilising” with most people “behaving quite responsibly”.

As well as deploying troops, he said the Government was sending out vehicles from its reserve tanker fleet, driven by civilian drivers, to provide “additional logistical capacity” to the industry.

“It takes, sometimes, a few days to get troops on the ground,” Mr Kwarteng told reporters.

“We have decided to do that.

“I think in the next couple of days you will see some soldiers driving tankers,” he said in a pooled clip for broadcasters.”

Altogether 150 military drivers, together with 150 drivers’ mates, have been on standby since Monday to carry out deliveries to filling stations.

Figures from the Department for Transport have shown there is a backlog of more than 56,000 applications for vocational driving licences, including HGV and bus permits, waiting to be processed.

Ministers have blamed the pandemic, which led to the cancellation last year of tens of thousands of tests.

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Closed pumps at a Shell garage in Clapham, London. 

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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan during the Labour Party conference in Brighton

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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan runs along the seafront in Brighton where the Labour Party is holding its Conference

The London mayor called on ministers to create a priority list of hospital staff, care workers and black cab drivers.

Prioritise hospital staff, care workers and cabbies for fuel, urges mayor

ars queue for fuel at a Sainsbury's petrol station in Camberley, Surrey

Surrey County Council's Conservative leader said the option will be considered by the local resilience forum.

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Fuel pumps out of use at a deserted Shell petrol station forecourt in Warwick. Picture date: Monday September 27, 2021.


Queues stretched out from petrol stations at the weekend as panic-buying added to fuel supply issues caused by a lack of HGV drivers.

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Opposition Labour councillors are calling for the £6m visitor platform to be demolished as soon as possible to 'put the Mound out of its misery'.

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Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Mr Khan said misogyny should be made a hate crime, and harassment in a public space against women should be a criminal offence.

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Mayor Sadiq Khan ordered the relocation to save money after revealing the annual rent for City Hall was set to rise to £9.6m.

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Action for Children says the closure of children's centres during the pandemic made access even worse for families already finding getting help difficult.

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