Don’t panic buy, Britain tells consumers

Soaring wholesale natural gas prices have strained supply chains already creaking due to labour shortages and Brexit.

Consumers should not panic buy products as Britain is not heading back into a 1970s-style “winter of discontent” of strikes and power shortages, a junior minister said on Thursday.

Soaring wholesale European natural gas prices have sent shockwaves through energy, chemicals and steel producers, and strained supply chains which were already creaking due to a shortage of labour and the tumult of Brexit.

After gas prices triggered a carbon dioxide shortage, Britain was forced to extend emergency state support to avert a shortage of poultry and meat.