Thread by @adampayne26

Ministers are being urged to temporarily relax immigration rules with supply chain disruption set to get worse in the next few weeks

But government isn't budging: "We want to build a resilient domestic workforce and not rely on immigration to do this"

politicshome.com/news/article/g…

A long-standing HGV driver shortage is being compounded by Covid & post-Brexit immigration rules

But it's not just drivers where the UK is lacking

Crops are going unpicked due to shortages elsewhere in the supply chain, @NigelFpc tells @politicshome politicshome.com/news/article/g…

Government has relaxed drivers' hours rules and plans to speed up tests (current backlog = 45,000) in an bid to tackle the shortage

But the industry says overseas drivers and other supply chain workers should be added to the occupation shortage list politicshome.com/news/article/g…

However, the government is adamant that it will not relax immigration rules to allow more overseas drivers and other supply chain workers into the UK, despite the disruption

The industry should hire more UK workers and make the job more appealing, it says politicshome.com/news/article/g…

And as food supply chains go, the worst is almost certainly yet to come

August: lots of drivers and workers taking holiday — rightly, the industry says — after working non-stop during Covid

October: checks on EU imports begin. January is a big concern

politicshome.com/news/article/g…

Around 2,000 members of the Army are being put on standby as the UK's HGV driver shortage worsens thesun.co.uk/news/15808206/…