BBC under fire for ‘pretending driver crisis is all about Brexit’

THE BBC came under fire last night for ignoring the fact that the HGV driver shortage has affected countries throughout the world.

Around 400,000 drivers are needed across mainland Europe, including shortfalls of 40,000 in Germany. In America, there is a shortfall of around 63,000 while China needs about four million extra drivers, according to the International Road Transport Union.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who trained as an HGV driver, accused the BBC of selective reporting.

He said: ‘The BBC insists on making this about Brexit and pretending that this is a problem confined to the UK.

‘This is a Covid issue affecting not just the whole of Europe but the world. I don’t understand why they are doing this but it is deeply misleading and the kind of reporting that leads to panic buying, as we have seen.’

France has faced a shortage of around 43,000 drivers since 2019, when the shortfall in Italy was estimated to be around 15,000, according to analysts Transport Intelligence.

Earlier this month, Jose Gomez-Urquiza, of US immigration agency Visa Solutions, said: ‘We [in America] are living through the worst driver shortage that we’ve seen in recent history, by far.’