Russell Kane took aim at drivers panic buying petrol on todays’ Good Morning Britain as the fuel crisis continues.
The army has been put on standby in preparation for possible deployment, ministers have confirmed, after days of long queues outside forecourts across the country as pumps ran dry.
Presenters Susanna Reid and Alistair Campbell debated whether drivers had been ‘sensibly panning’, to which comedian Russell strongly disagreed.
‘There would be enough fuel if the initial panic if we all used the amount we needed,’ he started. ‘I can’t believe we’re talking about getting the army involved. What is wrong with people? We need to become adults.
‘If you have a quarter of a tank, in you come, not a maximum order, not a minimum order.’
He continued: ‘We would not have closed pumps if people had not behaved like idiotic selfishness when they already had 90% full tanks. It’s not about turning away people that need fuel to work, it’s about not going to the station when you don’t need to.’
Russell said he was in a traffic jam for 20 minutes over the weekend due to queues from petrol stations spilling out into the roads.
Many filling stations have run dry after drivers made a dash for the pumps amid fears a shortage of tanker drivers would hit supplies.
Environment Secretary George Eustice meanwhile blamed motorists for filling up when they did not need to after days of lengthy queues at petrol stations.
‘There isn’t a shortage (of fuel),’ he said. ‘The cause of these current problems is that panic-buying episode and the most important thing is for people to start buying petrol as they normally would.
‘There does come a point, as we saw during a previous episode of panic buying during the pandemic on food, where things settle down and people get used to it and return to life as normal again.’
He added: ‘The sooner people do that the better.
‘The only reason we don’t have petrol on the forecourts is that people are buying petrol when they don’t need to.’
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.
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