Transport Secretary Grant Shapps Speaks to T&G on HGV Drivers Shortages and More

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has told Times Radio it's going to take a "considerable amount of time" to solve the long term shortage of HGV drivers despite easing visa restrictions.

Speaking to Isabel Hardman and Tom Newton Dunn on T&G on Sunday he said:

It is certainly going to take a considerable amount of time to alleviate this long term shortage of drivers which has gone on for five years. If you talk to the boss of Logistics UK; he came into the job five years ago and the first problem on his desk was a shortage of drivers. It's never changed. So that's going to take time to unwind.

TND: Months or years?

GS: It will take months to years to fully unwind. But the short term issue can actually resolve itself immediately, because we don't actually have a shortage (of fuel)... I can't give you an exact day and hour because it does depend on millions of people's behaviour when it comes to the petrol pumps as well.

On Labour's Angela Rayner describing Conservative ministers as "scum", he responded by saying:

It's just utterly disgraceful, unnecessary and unbecoming language. I saw the deputy leader being interviewed on television earlier, refusing to apologise for that language. It simply undermines public life. I wouldn't expect my children to speak like that and I don't expect to hear it from the front bench of the Labour Party.

And on Sir Keir Starmer's plan to tax private schools, he said:

My first thought is that he went to a fee paying school. I was slightly surprised by his announcement but I just don't agree with Labour's obsession with hammering on about this stuff. If people pay their taxes and they're paying for the state school system - I went to a state school - that is fine. If people then want to pay again and they want to send their children to a private school, that is their business. Let them get on with it. In fact, they're paying twice. That's up to them. But Labour are just obsessed with - despite Keir Starmer's own fee paying education - seemingly bashing people for the way they live their lives.

---

Times Radio brings you the latest breaking news, expert analysis and well-informed discussion on the biggest stories of the day, delivered with warmth, expertise and balance.

Subscribe here

We are the UK's newest digital news radio station, bringing together the peerless journalistic expertise of The Times and The Sunday Times with the world-class speech radio and podcasting experience of Wireless.