Millions of shoppers are unable to buy essential FOOD as one in three stock up for Christmas

Millions of shoppers have been unable to buy essential foods in the past two weeks, it was revealed yesterday, with soldiers set to be drafted in to drive HGVs over Christmas as Britain’s supply chain crisis continues. 

Shocking new figures from the Office of National Statistics said around one in six Britons have been unable to buy essential food items in the last fortnight as panic buying continues to take hold in Britain. 

A survey of 1,000 consumers by The Grocer revealed that two thirds of shoppers were either worried or ‘very worried’ by potential shortages of food and drink ahead of the festive season. 

Hundreds of thousands of panicked shoppers have already booked in their delivery slots for the festive season with one in three shoppers already starting to stock up on their groceries for Christmas. 

Now, senior Government figures have reportedly said that they are considering keeping soldiers on to drive HGV lorries across Christmas in a bid to prevent food shortages. 

Elsewhere, Boris Johnson appointed former Tesco boss Sir Dave Lewis as his new supply chain crisis tsar with a remit to clear ‘blockages’ and ‘pre-empt potential future ones’ after dismissing concerns over labour shortages, Britain’s creaking supply chain and fears over rising inflation.

In a string of developments yesterday:

• The National Grid prompted fears of blackouts with a warning over electricity supplies this winter, and more energy firms were expected to collapse, with customers being switched to suppliers charging higher tariffs; 
• Andrew Large, director-general at the Confederation of Paper Industries, warned the Government that there are ‘serious’ risks factories could stop all activities as a result of the gas prices being too high; 
• It was claimed the UK would become more reliant on dirty coal to keep the lights on, just as it hosts a UN climate change conference; 
• Experts warned that Britain faced an inflation shock that would squeeze family finances and could derail the economic recovery; 
• One City analyst said inflation was heading to levels not seen for 30 years, while a think-tank warned of a big increase in council tax; 
• The National Energy Action said up to 1.5 million more households could be plunged into fuel poverty if the energy cap soars; 
• Boris Johnson faced a Cabinet backlash over his war with business, with five ministers telling the Daily Mail they wanted the PM to adopt a more ‘pragmatic’ approach; 
• Industry chiefs said the switch to ‘greener’ petrol last month was a ‘contributory factor’ to the recent fuel crisis. 

Amid fears of food shortages in the coming months and panic buying leading to empty supermarket shelves, one in six adults have been unable to buy essential food items in the last fortnight.

Some 17 per cent of adults said they had not been able to purchase such goods because they were not available, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

While almost a quarter of adults said the same for non-essential food items, the ONS found after analysing responses from 3,326 adults between September 22 and October 3 as part of its Opinions and Lifestyle survey. 

It asked about people’s experiences of shortages over the past fortnight and overall, 57 per cent of people said everything they needed was still available to buy.

One in seven residents were unable to buy fuel as fears of petrol shortages and struggles with HGV driver recruitment led to drivers queuing for hours to get fuel and petrol stations being forced to close due to low supplies. 

Six in 10 people said their food shopping experience had been different to usual, while 43 per cent said there was less variety, and 14 per cent had to go to more shops to get what they needed.

A fifth of Britons said items that they needed were not available but they could find a replacement, with a further fifth saying they could not find a replacement.

Thirteen per cent of adults also reported waiting longer for prescriptions and four per cent of people had to go to more pharmacies to find what they needed. 

Amid fears that empty supermarket shelves will continue and worsen as Christmas approaches, hundreds of thousands of panicked shoppers have already booked in their delivery slots for the festive season.

A survey of 1,000 consumers by The Grocer revealed that two thirds of shoppers were either worried or ‘very worried’ by potential shortages of food and drink ahead of the festive season.

Supermarkets have been ramping up orders for turkey, the trimmings and other essentials to cope with an earlier than usual rush, according to the magazine.

Retailers have warned of empty shelves and delays to gifts due to gaps in the global supply chain and a lack of HGV drivers, amid concerns of a ‘winter of discontent’ hitting the UK.

Over the past month, one in ten businesses have put up prices due to rising inflation which is yet to peak, according to economists.

Mike Watkins, of analysts NielsenIQ, told The Grocer: ‘Shoppers tend to leave most of their Christmas grocery shopping later in November, but clearly this year we’re seeing late-November demand brought forward into October because of the concerns consumers have read and heard about, turkeys being a great example.’ 

Amid the panic buying, record numbers of panicked shoppers are already booking supermarket delivery slots for December.

Waitrose saw 22,000 festive slots booked by lunchtime on the first day of releasing their dates last week, while 112,000 had been booked by the end of the week.

Ocado, which is releasing slots more slowly, has sent out a ‘sorry if you haven’t been able to a Christmas Slot in time’ reply on its FAQ page.

Tesco is not releasing slots to customers on its Delivery Saver scheme until November 15 and for others on the 23 – the same dates as last year.

Supermarkets are not the only place that are experiencing shortages, as footballer Marcus Rashford said some of the food banks he works with have been experiencing supply issues.

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘They’re struggling to do what they love doing because there’s a shortage of food and of course it’s something that we’re going to have to find an answer to, and quickly as well because you know people are out there and they need the meals and especially going into winter.’

Elsewhere, Boris Johnson today appointed former Tesco boss Sir Dave Lewis as his new supply chain crisis tsar with a remit to clear ‘current blockages’ and ‘pre-empt potential future ones’.

The 56-year-old is nicknamed ‘Drastic Dave’ due to the lengths he will go to to turn around businesses, including job cuts and slashing prices, and ‘Diamond Dave’ because of his success at Britain’s biggest supermarket and at Unilever before that.

Mr Johnson has insisted it is not his job to ‘fix every problem in business’ caused by Brexit and the pandemic and repeatedly dismissed concerns over labour shortages, Britain’s creaking supply chain and fears over rising inflation.

But today’s appointment, welcomed by business leaders, is a sign Downing Street has growing concerns about the crisis after weeks of product shortages, queues at petrol stations and the growing threat of Christmas staples such as turkeys, pigs in blankets and gammons being scarce. 

Aldi is hiring 1,500 temporary store staff to deal with the expected Christmas rush and Island, which has seen frozen turkey sales up 409 per cent compared to the same period last year, has upped its order from suppliers by 20 per cent. 

Aldi recruitment director, Kelly Stokes, said: ‘We always need extra support over the busy Christmas period but this year especially, temporary store colleagues will play a vital role in keeping our shelves stocked as the nation prepares to reunite with their loved ones after missing out on festive celebrations in 2020.’

Mr Johnson has a lot riding on the festive period, having promised last week that ‘Christmas will be considerably better than last Christmas’.

A survey has revealed that families will be doing more to celebrate this year than they did before the pandemic despite concerns about shortages wreaking havoc.

Households across the UK will be pulling out all the stops to make sure this festive season is more special than ever, after missing out on much of the fun last year due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The findings are published in the second edition of the M&S Family Matters Index, out this week, which explores the priorities, challenges, ambitions and plans of families.

Some 39 per cent of 5,000 British adults said they will do more to celebrate Christmas than they did before the pandemic hit, with more effort also planned for Easter, Diwali and Hannukah.

One in three say they will do more in future to celebrate family birthdays, and more than one in five say this of New Year’s Eve and relationship anniversaries. 

However this year families face the threat of the lack of supplies reaching the UK due to labour shortages, Britain’s creaking supply chain and fears over rising inflation.

This afternoon France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune even threatened to cut off supplies of turkeys and other goods unless continental fishermen are allowed to work in British waters. 

It is the latest threat from across the Channel in a dispute over access to rich fishing grounds from next year, including the possibility of cutting electricity supplies to Channel Islands Jersey and Guernsey.

It came as fears were raised today of another toilet roll shortage as industry bosses warned spiralling costs will hit production – and baked beans became the latest food staple to face price increases.

Downing Street said former supermarket chief executive Sir Dave will advise the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and work with Government officials to quickly resolve acute, short-term issues. 

He will also co-chair a new supply chain advisory group and be based in the Cabinet Office.

A No10 spokesman said: ‘This includes both identifying the causes of current blockages and pre-empting potential future ones, and advising on resolutions either through direct government action or through industry with Government support.’

Mr Johnson said: ‘I’m pleased that Sir David Lewis is joining the team who have been working on future-proofing our supply chains across the United Kingdom as we recover from the pandemic. There are currently global supply issues which we are working with industry to mitigate and Dave brings a wealth of experience which will help us continue to protect our businesses and supply chains.’

Business leaders have welcomed the appointment and said they hope it is a sign that No 10 is willing to listen to their concerns.

Hannah Essex, Co-Executive Director of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: ‘We very much welcome the appointment of Sir David Lewis.

‘Hopefully Sir David, and the new groups he co-chairs, will be able to hit the ground running and urgently address some of the critical issues damaging business conditions. 

‘The increasing pressure that businesses, especially SMEs, are facing around supply chain costs and disruption, labour shortages, price rises, soaring energy bills and taxes is becoming dire.’

Meanwhile, a French minister today threatened to cut off supplies of Christmas turkeys unless continental fishermen are allowed to work in British waters. 

Paris’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune lashed out at the UK’s Brexit ‘failures’ and said that France’s trawlermen would not ‘pay the price’ for the UK’s decision to leave.

It is the latest threat from across the channel in a dispute over access to rich fishing grounds from next year.

French fishing barons earlier this week gave Britain two weeks to grant them more access to its waters or face being cut off from crucial Christmas supplies.

They handed down the ultimatum a day after skippers vowed to block the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel unless their demands were met.

Speaking to BFM TV in France today Mr Baume – one of Emmanuel Macron’s most outspoken ministers, vented on the subject again. 

As the gas crisis escalated, Ofgem warned there will also be a ‘significant rise’ to the cap on energy bills – hitting millions of Britain’s poorest people – with soaring energy prices set to push average annual bills through the £2,000 barrier for the first time. 

Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley, didn’t put a figure on it, but said there will be a ‘significant rise’ in the price cap set by the industry regulator which helps to control the cost of gas and electricity in the UK. 

He didn’t knock back claims that fixed and other deals could reach £2,000 in 2022.

‘We can’t predict everything, and the wholesale market, as we’ve seen, has gone up and down extremely quickly so we can’t predict fully what that will be,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. ‘But, looking at the costs that are in the system, we are expecting a significant rise in April.’

But Mr Brearley added that the current price cap will remain until April. ‘We have no plans to raise the price cap before April,’ he said.

In the face of the ongoing energy crisis, London-based money-saving expert Martin Lewis has urged customers to ‘do nothing’.

He said those who want cheaper energy deals shouldn’t shop around like normal – instead he insisted ‘inaction is now the best action’.

Speaking on his eponymous ITV show on Thursday, Martin said customers should pick deals that match their energy providers’ price cap – or wait until they are given one when their current deal ends.   

The finance expert explained: ‘Do nothing, do nothing, energy prices are rising, energy firms are falling. The cheapest fixes are £500 a year higher than they were just a month ago.

‘Shocking. People are panicking. Do nothing. Inaction is now the best action,’ he added. 

Explaining the reasons behind the surging prices, he said: ‘The wholesale gas price is the price firms pay, and in the UK a lot of our electricity is heated by gas so it hits the electricity price too, it was normally about 50p/therm, you’ll see it has exploded in the last few months – it’s now well over five times the normal amount and that’s hideous.’ 

The energy crisis has been blamed, in part, on a shortage of natural gas caused by Vladimir Putin allegedly ‘choking’ supplies to Europe to pressurise regulators into approving the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Today Boris Johnson waded into the row, branding the link a threat to energy security and suggesting the decision to bypass Ukraine to bring supplies direct to Germany would damage the Ukrainian economy.

A No 10 spokesman said: ‘Although Nord Stream 2 will not directly impact the UK’s energy security, it could have serious implications for central and eastern European countries.

‘Some European countries are nearly wholly dependent on Russian gas, which raises serious concerns about energy security.’

In comments reported by The Times, the spokesman also warned about the damage to Ukraine, which currently hosts the largest pipeline network for Russian gas and benefits from large transit fees. 

He added: ‘Nord Stream 2 would divert supplies away from Ukraine, with significant consequences for its economy.’

The natural gas price is currently hovering at around £2.40 a therm – down from more than £4 yesterday – after traders were reassured by Putin hinting that Russia would consider increasing exports.  

He said: ‘So, our paper mill will be wanting to operate 24/7, 365 days a year, with the exception of planned stoppages for maintenance and so on. So the financial sustainability of that paper mill is dependent upon being able to maximise its uptime.

‘Every minute that the machinery isn’t working, every minute that paper isn’t being produced is a damage to the profitability of the sector and a damage to the future investment potential and opportunities going forward.’ 

It comes as Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News ‘we’re right at the tail end’ of the situation with fuel supply pressures.

He said in ‘most parts of the country’ problems have ended, and that London and the South East are the only two areas ‘where we’re seeing any continued problems’.

He added that around 3,500 people have applied for provisional HGV licences in the past week.

The Government is also prepared to ask the military to drive HGV lorries until Christmas, after they have already stepped in to help due to recruitment issues heightened by Brexit and the Covid pandemic. 

Senior Government sources told The Telegraph that they are willing to ask for an extension of the Military Assistance to Civilian Authorities (MACA) order in a bid to prevent shortages of food and other essential items this Christmas.

The original MACA order is understood to last 30 days, but a Government source told the publication that it could be extended if problems persist past the beginning of November, when the order will run out.

Andrew Large, director-general at the Confederation of Paper Industries, said its members are being ‘affected very, very severely’ by cost increases, with toilet roll and packaging among the items that could be hit hardest.

He said: ‘They’re seeing their costs go up through the roof. It’s damaging their profitability and in some cases it’s causing them to manage their production rates so as not to expose themselves to the very, very highest costs.’

Meanwhile, baked beans have become the latest victims of soaring inflation – with the head of manufacturer Kraft Heinz today revealing the cost of the breakfast staple will have to go up.

Miguel Patricio, CEO of Kraft Heinz, which makes a range of other products including Philadelphia spread and Capri Sun, said that inflation was widespread globally and costs were rising.

‘In previous years there was inflation in coffee because of a bad crop or a bad crop in beans – what is different now is that this inflation is across the board,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

‘So it’s impossible to navigate through this moment of inflation without increasing prices. It’s up to us, and to the industry and to other companies to try to minimise these price increases.’

One in ten British businesses put up their prices in the past month due to the rising costs, the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) latest business survey for September shows.

Meanwhile, nearly a third of companies have seen a higher-than-normal increase in running costs and many have been forced to pass this on to customers.

Companies in construction, services and manufacturing were the worst hit as 10 per cent said they needed to raise prices last month, up from 8% per cent in mid-August and 4 per cent early in 2021.

The data showed that, of these, nearly a quarter, 23 per cent, were retailers in consumer-facing sectors, and 25 per cent were in the manufacturing industry.

The stark data came as the soaring cost of electricity and gas hit industries such as steel, glass and chemicals, meaning consumers will soon be paying more for a huge number of products including cars, building materials, food packaging and even toilet roll.

Factories have moved to reduce their output to save on costs as the price of energy went through the roof with some demanding Government support to keep running.

It came as the Bank of England’s new chief economist, Huw Pill, used his first interview in the in the job to warn that Britain faces a ‘greater than expected’ rise in inflation over the coming months, which with further hammer households and businesses.

Mr Pill said he expects increasing costs of living ‘should subside as the pandemic recedes’, but with inflation already at a nine-year high of 3.2 per cent, he gave the chilling warning: ‘The magnitude and duration of the transient inflation spike is proving greater than expected.’

Britons and their businesses are being battered by a ‘perfect storm’ of inflation and supply chain problems with experts predicted inflation could still reach 5% by Christmas.

Le Grinch threatens to steal Christmas: France warns Britain it faces a festive goods blockade, saying their fishermen must not pay for UK’s Brexit ‘failure’

By David Wilcock, Whitehall Correspondent for MailOnline

A French minister today threatened to cut off supplies of Christmas turkeys unless continental fishermen are allowed to work in British waters.

Paris’s noisy European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune lashed out at the UK’s Brexit ‘failures’ and said that France’s trawlermen would not ‘pay the price’ for the UK’s decision to leave.

It is the latest threat from across the channel in a dispute over access to rich fishing grounds from next year.

French fishing barons earlier this week gave Britain two weeks to grant them more access to its waters or face being cut off from crucial Christmas supplies.

They handed down the ultimatum a day after skippers vowed to block the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel unless their demands were met.

 Speaking to BFM TV in France today Mr Baume – one of Emmanuel Macron’s most outspoken ministers, vented on the subject again. 

‘They failed on Brexit. It was a bad choice. Threatening us, threatening our fishermen, will not settle their supply of turkey at Christmas,’ he said.

‘We will hold firm. The Brits need us to sell their products.’

French boats were free to fish in the six-to-12 mile zone when the UK was in the EU, but now have to prove that they previously did so. France says they should keep the same level of access, accusing Britain of breaching the Brexit trade deal. 

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Jean Castex said France was ready to review bilateral cooperation with Britain if London continues to ignore the agreement reached over fishing rights in its post-Brexit trading relationship with the European Union.

Paris is infuriated by London’s refusal to grant what it considers the full number of licenses due to French fishing boats to operate in Britain’s territorial waters, and is threatening retaliatory measures.

French fishermen have also said they could block the northern port of Calais and Channel Tunnel rail link, both major transit points for trade between Britain and continental Europe, if London does not grant more fishing licences in the next 17 days. 

They previously blockaded Jersey over access to Channel Island waters. 

Beaune said France had asked for 450 fishing licences but had only received 275. ‘We’re 40 percent short, but we insist on those 450,’ he said.

‘Britons need us to sell their products, including from fishing, they need us for their energy, for their financial services and for their research centres,’ Beaune said.

‘All of this gives us pressure points. We have the means to modulate the degree of our cooperation, to reduce it, if Britain does not implement the agreement,’ he said.

‘If they don’t do their share, then we won’t do 100 percent of our share either.’

In Brussels, Eurocrats refused to be drawn into the row, as Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius held talks with Environment Secretary George Eustice.

 A European Commission spokesman said: ‘Both sides committed to continue as a matter of urgency to examine the evidence, boat by boat, to find a solution for European fishermen and women, guaranteeing that all who qualify under the terms of TCA (trade and co-operation agreement) can receive their licenses swiftly.’

Earlier this week a senior EU diplomat claimed France was ‘overplaying’ the row ahead of next year’s presidential election. The source said: ‘It looks good for President Macron right now to be tough on the British.’

The Brexit trade agreement, signed by both sides last year, reduces the catch for EU trawlers in British waters by 25 per cent over five-years. After that expires, access will be negotiated on an annual basis.

The French government wants other EU members to support their push for Britain to be brought before an arbitration panel set up to thrash out post-Brexit disputes.

The country’s maritime ministry said yesterday that French ministers would unveil retaliatory measures ‘in the second half of October’. Annick Giradin, the French maritime minister, has raised the possibility of cutting electricity supplies to Channel Islands Jersey and Guernsey.

End of furlough did NOT lead to wave of job cuts despite fears removing Covid support scheme would spark surge in redundancies, data suggests

By Jack Wright for MailOnline 

The end of the £70billion furlough scheme did not lead to the wave of job cuts many expected after the massive Covid financial support scheme was wound down last month, early data suggests. 

Figures from the Insolvency Service show that the number of redundancies proposed by employers in September was close to record lows, with many businesses with large numbers of furloughed workers saying they have taken everyone back.

The furlough scheme introduced by the Government last year, where the state paid a proportion of workers’ wages when their bosses couldn’t during the pandemic, ended last month.

It is estimated that the programme helped to protect 11.6million jobs over the past 18 months. But around one million workers were still on the programme when it finally closed last week, sparking fears of a surge in unemployment – particularly within the hospitality and travel sectors decimated by Covid. 

Now official data suggests the number of businesses planning redundancies was still close to record lows last month, with just over 200 firms informing the Government of plans to lay off workers.

The figures indicate that just 13,836 jobs were at risk last month – a slight increase on August, but far below the levels seen last summer among the lowest numbers ever seen since records began. However, these figures don’t include smaller firms, because employers are only obliged to notify government when making 20 or more jobs redundant. 

Trade unions including the Community, CWU, GMB, Prospect, Unite and Usdaw told the BBC they had not received news of any major redundancies among their members this week. 

Tony Wilson, director of the Institute of Employment Studies, told the broadcaster: ‘With estimates of actual redundancies and of real-time online searches related to redundancy both lower than before the pandemic, it looks like the worst is well and truly behind us now on job losses.’

The new month of October also marked the end of the furlough salary support scheme as well as the withdrawal of an extra £20-a-week for struggling households receiving Universal Credit. 

It comes as Britain experiences its worst crisis since the Covid outreak, with soaring gas prices and rising inflation set to hit people in their wallets while businesses accused the Prime Minister of ‘economic illiteracy’.  

Around a million people were thought to be on furlough by the time the scheme ended, of whom around half were working part-time and partly furloughed, the Resolution Foundation think-tank said. 

The massive scale of the coronavirus furlough scheme was laid bare today as official statistics showed one in four UK workers were kept afloat by handouts from the Government. 

Numbers published by the Office for National Statistics indicate that a quarter of the nation’s workforce were on furlough at some point during the pandemic, with half the people who were on the scheme spent more than three months in total off work as the Covid-19 crisis wreaked havoc with businesses.

Meanwhile, the numbers revealed that employees with no education above GCSE level were more likely to have been furloughed than their counterparts with university degrees.

ONS data showed that one in four people who were employees during the coronavirus pandemic had been on furlough at some point between March 2020 and June 2021.

Younger and older workers were more likely to have been on furlough than their middle-aged counterparts.

Some 30 per cent of workers under the age of 24 and a similar proportion of those over the age of 65 were on furlough compared to 23 per cent of workers aged 35 to 44 years.

Half of the overall number of people furloughed spent more than three months in total on the scheme, with 24 per cent spending six months or longer at home.

ONS numbers showed that 54 per cent of women were furloughed for more than three months, compared to 45 per cent of men.

The data revealed there was a significant education divide when it came to who was being furloughed.

The ONS said: ‘Employees during the pandemic with a degree or equivalent qualification were 8.9 percentage points less likely to be furloughed, when compared with those whose highest qualifications were GCSEs. 

‘This may reflect more specific job responsibilities or levels of experience across people with similar jobs, which meant certain people were less likely to go on furlough.’

The ONS found that eight per cent of people who had been furloughed were no longer employed in the three months to June this year.

It was broadly the same picture for employees who had not been furloughed (seven per cent). The numbers published by the ONS cover the period between March 2020 and June 2021.

Analysis of the situation at the point when the furlough scheme ended is expected to be published by the organisation in the coming months. 

It comes as Boris Johnson’s keynote speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester has been heavily condemned by business leaders for lacking a coherent economic plan.

On the last day of the conference, the Prime Minister said he was setting out the ‘difficult’ process of reshaping the economy in what critics described as a ‘vacuous’ and ‘economically illiterate’ speech.

With labour shortages hitting supply chains, leading to empty shelves and queues at petrol stations, Mr Johnson defended his strategy of restricting the supply of cheap foreign labour after Brexit, insisting his new approach would ultimately create a ‘low-tax economy’.

But businesses leaders have criticised this approach, with many arguing that restricting migration could lead to higher inflation and increase costs on the consumers.

Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland and Leave voter, complained about the Government treating businesses like an ‘endless sponge’ when they can only weather so many cost increases at once.

He told the Times: ‘The finger is being pointed at business as the bogeyman, but it’s much wider than that. We want to pay our people as much as possible but business is not an endless sponge that can keep absorbing costs in one go.

‘Next year we’ll have a wave of higher costs in one go. Next year we’ll have a wave of higher costs from higher energy bills, extra HGV drivers, packaging costs. We can only weather many cost increases at once, so they need to tape it.’

The Federation of Small Businesses criticised the 45-minute conference speech, noting Labour, and not the Conservatives, are the only party with a ‘pro-small business policy’.

Craig Beaumont, chief of external affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses, told Times Radio: ‘Looking at this party conference season, there was one party of the two that came out with a pro small business policy.

‘And I think, you know, the Government should be looking at that and going: ‘Well, maybe we’ve taken this group a bit for granted’. So now, what is that small business offer? What is their response? And at the moment there isn’t much, so there needs to be a really strong response to the budget.’ 

Free market think tank the Adam Smith Institute described the address as ‘bombastic but vacuous and economically illiterate’, while Conservative think tank Bright Blue said there was ‘no inspiring new vision or policy’.

Ryan Shorthouse, director of Bright Blue, said in an interview with the Guardian: ‘The public will soon tire of Boris’s banter if the Government does not get a grip of mounting crises: price rises, tax rises, fuel shortages, labour shortages. There was nothing new in this speech, no inspiring new vision or policy.’

When pressed on the discontent felt by business leaders, Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central Jo Gideon defended the Government, telling BBC Newsnight: ‘We’ve got a million job vacancies at the moment but we’ve got also unemployment.

‘When we went into the pandemic, it was predicted that we would have more than two million more unemployed that we actually have so I mean it’s a success story of the furlough of the £400 billon that was invested to keep people and businesses afloat.’

She added: ‘I am out there meeting businesses every day and I’m hearing two things: they are both enormously grateful for the support that they have from the Government during the pandemic, and also very much looking forward to being part of this massive chunk of jobs where they have support, apprenticeships and kickstart schemes to take new people on.

‘In my own constituency, there is a massive commitment for local businesses to support.’

We’re at the mercy of Vlad the Blackmailer — and it’s all our fault, writes EDWARD LUCAS

By Edward Lucas for the Daily Mail 

The Berlin Wall may have come down more than three decades ago, but the grim politics of the Cold War are in danger of returning to Europe.

With characteristic ruthlessness, Russian president Vladimir Putin is exploiting the energy crisis to bully his neighbours, strengthen his autocracy and intimidate the West.

His chosen weapon in this renewed campaign of hostility is Russia’s control of gas supplies: the vast gasfields and the export pipelines that bring them to market.

This infrastructure, often legacy assets from the Soviet empire, give the Russian president enormous leverage in his quest for ever-greater domination of the region.

Russia’s capacity to manipulate the British and European energy markets for geo-political ends has been dramatically illustrated during the turmoil of recent days. 

As the price of gas contracts soared on Wednesday by 40 per cent in just 24 hours, Gazprom, Russia’s state-backed monopoly exporter of pipeline gas, was accused of flexing its muscles by both restricting supplies to Europe and keeping its European underground storage facilities at deliberately low levels.

The sense of Russian control was further reinforced when it took just a few words from Putin himself to bring an immediate fall in gas prices.

Revelling in his position as the ultimate wire-puller, he said with a hint of blackmail that supplies could be increased. 

‘This speculative craze doesn’t do us any good,’ he said, adding that Europe’s leaders should ‘settle with Gazprom and talk it over’.

Putin might be behaving like a mafia boss in charge of a protection racket, but British and European governments have for years disastrously played into his hands with misguided, short-term policy decisions.

To be fair, the EU has taken some steps to break the Russian stranglehold, by building new international pipelines, breaking the Kremlin’s east-west transit monopoly, and by drastic reforms of the energy market that have unbundled the corrupt, exploitative business model.

Europe has also pioneered the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from destinations such as Qatar.

Yet Europe has been increasing its reliance on supplies from outside the continent by running down its own domestic energy industries. So far, renewables have not made up the gap, especially in recent months when the wind has not been blowing.

In Britain, the problem is particularly acute because we are one of Europe’s largest gas users, while we have massively reduced gas production from the rich fields of the North Sea and Irish Sea over the past 20 years.

Nor have we made use of the vast reserves of shale gas that exist across the country, even though such resources have recently made America ‘energy-independent’ once more.

Instead, Britain has exacerbated its energy vulnerability by depending on just-in-time imports from pipelines and seaborne cargoes.

In a particular act of folly, the Tory Government in 2017 decided to close the huge storage facility on the Yorkshire coast connected to the Rough gas field, believing both that supplies of LNG would always be plentiful and also because the energy companies believed that limiting storage would boost prices and thereby profits.

Four years later, the step has backfired catastrophically, leaving us at the mercy of Putin.

Indeed, our entire energy strategy has been marked by stinginess, wishful thinking and complacency.

By manipulating energy markets, Putin’s immediate objective could not be more clear: he wants to pressurise Europe into approving immediately the operation of Gazprom’s controversial £8.1 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Now completed, this runs into Germany along the seabed of the Baltic Sea and bypasses Ukraine, in whose eastern regions Russia has been fighting a proxy war since 2014.

Critics say Nord Stream 2 will give too much influence to Russia over regional energy supplies and their prices.

But crucially, the project is backed by Germany, which puts cheap reliable supplies of Russian gas ahead of the security interests of its east European neighbours. 

US President Joe Biden’s administration, desperate to repair the damage done to relations with Europe under Donald Trump, has dropped American objections to the scheme.

The result is that Russia can now hold Ukraine and other Eastern European states to ransom. The Kremlin could shut down their gas without having to cut off the rest of Europe. 

In effect, one group of nations will be played off against the other in a fearful system of divide and rule, with Russia in command.

As Yuriy Vitrenko, the chief executive of Ukrainian energy giant Naftogaz, put it this week: ‘Moscow is withholding gas supplies in order to coerce Europe into accepting Nord Stream 2. 

‘Russia’s actions are the epitome of gas weaponisation. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge what Moscow is doing, especially when it does this so blatantly, is sending a dangerous message to the Russians that they can use gas to blackmail Europe and get away with it.’

Given all this, it is almost inevitable that Ukraine will soon be plunged into another security crisis, perhaps even greater than the one that led to the annexation of Crimea in 2014. 

The fallout would be disastrous, especially in view of the fragility of Europe’s post-Covid economies.

The implications of Russia’s energy strength are brutal, leaving us relentlessly on the defensive. 

If, for example, Russia invaded Estonia, would Nato respond if Putin threatened to cut off Europe’s gas? The only way to break free from the shackles of energy dependency is to develop our own resources and means of storage.

In the 1970s, Western reliance on Middle Eastern oil created an era of regional conflict and economic crisis.

It would be a tragedy if today, the same were to happen because of our reliance on Russian gas.