Connect with us

Published

on

Panicked motorists have caused lengthy queues at petrol stations for a second day – as an industry expert predicted the “catastrophic situation” is going to get worse before it improves.

Long lines of cars continued to form at forecourts across the country on Saturday after a shortage of HGV drivers forced some fuel retailers to shut their pumps and ration sales.

The petrol problems come after retailers warned a solution to the lack of truckers must be found within days to avoid “significant disruption” in the run-up to Christmas.

Fuel supply latest: Follow live updates as police urge motorists to ‘be sensible’

Motorists queue for petrol at a petrol station in Brockley, South London
Image:
Motorists queue for petrol in Brockley, south London
A man carrying containers at a petrol station in Bracknell, Berkshire
Image:
A man was seen carrying containers at a petrol station in Bracknell, Berkshire

Sky News understands that Boris Johnson has allowed minsters to relax immigration rules and up to 5,000 temporary visas could be issued to foreign lorry drivers.

Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association, described the panic buying as a “catastrophic situation” and said he had witnessed queues up to a mile long at forecourts.

More on Supply Crisis

He told Sky News: “There’s enough fuel at the refineries and terminals to supply the normal demand.

“What we have at the moment is abnormal demand where everyone is rushing to fill up their vehicles.”

He added: “It is a crisis situation that has developed very quickly.”

Mr Madderson warned that the panic buying of fuel risked impacting key workers trying to get to work.

“I think this situation is going to get worse before it gets better,” he added.

An announcement on the temporary visa scheme aimed at HGV drivers is expected this weekend, with Number 10 insisting any move would be “very strictly time-limited”.

The UK is facing a shortage of 100,000 HGV drivers, according to the Road Haulage Association.

A Downing Street spokesperson said the country had “ample fuel stocks” and insisted “there are no shortages”.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Motorists face lengthy wait for fuel at forecourt

But Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner criticised the government for the “crisis now on our forecourts”.

She told Sky News: “People have started to panic buy fuel and I would urge people not to do that because that will only make the situation worse.

“But this is of the government’s own doing and their failures.”

Shell garage, Isleworth
Image:
Fuel pumps ran dry at this Shell garage in Isleworth, west London

She added: “It’s a theme that we have with this government – they constantly do things at the last minute, at the last possible point, and create the crisis in the first place.

“Once again Boris Johnson and his government have basically decided to have a laissez-faire attitude and hope that things will just fix themselves.

“Well, they haven’t fixed themselves and their policies have come home to roost for the British public.”

People have been spotted filling up jerry cans with petrol in pictures being circulated on social media.

Lincolnshire Police urged drivers to be “sensible” about filling up at petrol stations after long queues for the pumps built up around the region.

Esso, BP and Tesco forecourts have been affected by problems getting petrol deliveries.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Queues overnight at petrol stations

BP said around 20 of its 1,200 petrol forecourts were closed due to a lack of available fuel, with between 50 and 100 sites affected by the loss of at least one grade of fuel.

A “small number” of Tesco refilling stations have also been impacted, said Esso owner ExxonMobil, which runs the sites.

On Friday, the EG Group, which has around 400 petrol stations in the UK, said it was imposing a £30 limit “due to the current unprecedented customer demand for fuel”.

Continue Reading

Business

Sir Jim Ratcliffe scolds Tories over handling of economy and immigration after Brexit

Published

on

By

Sir Jim Ratcliffe scolds Tories over handling of economy and immigration after Brexit

Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has told Sky News that Britain is ready for a change of government after scolding the Conservatives over their handling of the economy and immigration after Brexit.

While insisting his petrochemicals conglomerate INEOS is apolitical, Sir Jim backed Brexit and spent last weekend with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Manchester United – the football club he now runs as minority owner.

“I’m sure Keir will do a very good job at running the country – I have no questions about that,” Sir Jim said in an exclusive interview.

“There’s no question that the Conservatives have had a good run,” he added. “I think most of the country probably feels it’s time for a change. And I sort of get that, really.”

Politics live: ‘We are in existential battle’ over world order, defence secretary warns

Sir Jim was a prominent backer of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum but now has issues with how Brexit was delivered by Tory prime ministers.

“Brexit sort of unfortunately didn’t turn out as people anticipated because… Brexit was largely about immigration,” Sir Jim said.

More from Politics

“That was the biggest component of that vote. People were getting fed up with the influx of the city of Southampton coming in every year. I think last year it was two times Southampton.

“I mean, no small island like the UK could cope with vast numbers of people coming into the UK.

“I mean, it just overburdens the National Health Service, the traffic service, the police, everybody.

“The country was designed for 55 or 60 million people and we’ve got 70 million people and all the services break down as a consequence.

“That’s what Brexit was all about and nobody’s implemented that. They just keep talking about it. But nothing’s been done, which is why I think we’ll finish up with the change of government.”

Read more:
Sir Jim’s mission to succeed at ‘the one challenge the UK has never brought home’

UK needs to get ‘sharper on the business front’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has indicated an election is due this year but Monaco-based Sir Jim is unimpressed by the Conservatives’ handling of the economy.

“The UK does need to get a bit sharper on the business front,” he said. “I think the biggest objective for the government is to create growth in the economy.

“There’s two parts of the economy, there’s the services side of the economy and there’s the manufacturing side. And the manufacturing, unfortunately, has been sliding away now for the last 25 years.

“We were very similar in scale to Germany probably 25 years ago.

“But today we’re just a fraction of where Germany is and I think that isn’t healthy for the British economy… particularly when you think the north of England is very manufacturing based, and that talks to things like energy competitiveness, it talks to things like, why do you put an immensely high tax on the North Sea?

“That just disincentivises people from finding hydrocarbons in the North Sea, in energy.

“And what we need is competitive energy. So I mean, in America, in the energy world, in the oil and gas world, they just apply a corporation tax to the oil and gas companies, which is about 30%. And in the UK we’ve got this tax of 75% because we want to kill off the oil and gas companies.

“But if we don’t have competitive energy, we’re not going to have a healthy manufacturing industry. And that just makes no sense to me at all. No.”

‘We’re apolitical’

Asked about INEOS donating to Labour, Sir Jim replied: “We’re apolitical, INEOS.

“We just want a successful manufacturing sector in the UK and we’ve talked to the government about that. It’s pretty clear about our views.”

Sir Jim was keener to talk about the economy and politics than his role at struggling Manchester United, which he bought a 27.7% stake in from the American Glazer family in February – giving him an even higher business profile.

Old Trafford stadium in Manchester. Pic: AP
Image:
Old Trafford stadium in Manchester. Pic: AP

Push for stadium of the North

He is continuing to push for public funds to regenerate Old Trafford and the surrounding areas despite no apparent political support being forthcoming. Sir Keir was hosted at the stadium for a Premier League match last weekend just as heavy rain exposed the fragility of the ageing venue.

“There’s a very good case, in my view, for having a stadium of the North, which would serve the northern part of the country in that arena of football,” Sir Jim said. “If you look at the number of Champions League the North West has won, it’s 10. London has won two.

“And yet everybody from the North has to get down to London to watch a big football match. And there should be one [a large stadium] in the North, in my view.

“But it’s also important for the southern side of Manchester, you know, to regenerate.

“It’s the sort of second capital of the country where the Industrial Revolution began.

“But if you have a regeneration project, you need a nucleus or a regeneration project and having that world-class stadium there, I think would provide the impetus to regenerate that region.”

Continue Reading

Business

Marks & Spencer’s website and app go down

Published

on

By

Marks & Spencer's website and app go down

Marks & Spencer’s website and app has not been working for several hours, with a message telling shoppers “you can’t shop with us right now”.

“We’re working hard to be back online as soon as possible,” it adds.

All the menus and images have disappeared apart from one showing a model in a green jacket.

Customers trying to use the app got the message: “Sorry you can’t shop through the app right now. We’re busy making some planned changes, but will be back soon.”

The site is understood to have been down for several hours.

Replying to one customer on X, the retailer said: “We’re experiencing some technical issues but we are working on it.”

M&S is the latest high street name to have technical issues – last month some Sainsbury’s shoppers had problems with their online orders.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

The outage comes a few days before M&S is expected to reveal a big jump in annual profits.

It’s been a successful year for the brand, with strong sales across the business following a turnaround plan that has included store closures and cost cutting.

Continue Reading

Business

Employees at fintech giant Revolut to cash in with $500m share sale

Published

on

By

Employees at fintech giant Revolut to cash in with 0m share sale

Bosses at Revolut, Britain’s biggest fintech, are drawing up plans to allow employees to cash in with a sale of stock valued at hundreds of millions of pounds.

Sky News has learnt that the banking and payments services provider is lining up investment bankers to coordinate a secondary share sale worth in the region of $500m (£394m).

Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street bank, is expected to be engaged to work on the proposed stock offering, which will take place later this year.

Money blog: How to sell your home without an estate agent

City sources said this weekend that Nik Storonsky, Revolut’s co-founder and chief executive, was determined to seek a valuation of at least the $33bn (£26bn) it secured in a primary funding round in 2021.

“This will not be a down-round,” said one person familiar with Revolut’s thinking.

Although the fintech, which has more than 40 million customers, is not planning to raise new capital as part of the transaction, any sizeable share sale will still be closely watched across the global fintech sector.

It is expected to be restricted to company employees.

Revolut ranks among the world’s largest financial technology businesses, with revenue virtually doubling last year to around £1.7bn, according to figures expected to be published in the coming months.

Founded in 2015, it has experienced a string of regulatory and compliance challenges, with reports last year highlighting its release of funds from accounts flagged by the National Crime Agency as suspicious.

The company’s growth has taken place at breakneck speed, with customer numbers soaring from 16.4m at the point of the Series E fundraising nearly three years ago.

Pic: Revolut
Image:
The company’s growth has taken place at breakneck speed. Pic: Revolut

Insiders argued that despite the protracted downturn in tech valuations over the last two years, Revolut’s relentless expansion would easily justify it maintaining its status as Britain’s most valuable fintech.

Monzo, the UK-based digital bank, recently confirmed a Sky News story that it had closed a funding round worth nearly £500m, including backing from an arm of Google’s owner, Alphabet, and a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund.

Elsewhere, however, the funding landscape has been bleaker, with a growing number of tech companies which had attracted unicorn valuations of more than $1bn now struggling to stay afloat.

Read more on Sky News:
Body Shop administrator to launch auction of stricken chain
Rishi Sunak leapfrogs the King in new rich list

Revolut has allotted stock options to many of its 10,000 employees as part of their compensation packages, although it was unclear how many would be eligible to dispose of equity in the transaction later this year.

A source close to the company said it had had numerous expressions of interest from prospective investors.

Revolut’s current shareholders include SoftBank’s Vision Fund and Tiger Global.

News of the proposed share sale comes as Revolut’s investors continue to await positive news about its application for a UK banking licence.

A smartphone displays a Revolut logo on top of banknotes
Image:
Revolut applied for a UK banking licence more than three years ago. Pic: Reuters

The company applied to regulators to become a bank in Britain more than three years ago, but has so far failed to secure approval.

Mr Storonsky has been publicly critical of the delay, and last year questioned the approach of British regulators and politicians, as he suggested that he would not contemplate a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

An initial public offering of Revolut appears to still be some way off, although it would not surprise investors or industry peers if it initiated a listing process in the next couple of years.

One person close to Revolut said board members were among those expected to participate in the secondary share sale, although further details were unclear this weekend.

Listen and subscribe to The Ian King Business Podcast here

The company is chaired by Martin Gilbert, the City veteran who has faced governance and performance challenges at Assetco, the London-listed asset manager he runs.

Its other directors include Michael Sherwood, the former Goldman Sachs executive who was jointly responsible for its operations outside the US and who was regarded as one of the most skilled traders of his generation.

An external shareholder in the company said the exclusion of non-employees from the deal could draw criticism from some investors.

Revolut has conducted secondary share sales of this kind in the past, including after its 2021 Series E round.

This weekend, Revolut declined to comment.

Continue Reading

Trending