Government plans to recruit up to 5,000 foreign lorry drivers to help ease supply issues have been described as "too little" and "too late".

As well as the petrol supply issues that have sparked panic buying at petrol stations, retailers have been warning of a toy and turkey shortage in the run up to Christmas,

Marc Fels, director of the HGV Recruitment Centre said: "Every additional driver that is coming into the sector at the moment is going to be of benefit.

"But I feel this is too little, because the numbers coming in, 5,000, is not going to make a very large dent on the 90,000-100,000 that we are perceived to be short.

"And too late because we have been understanding these problems have been coming as early as April this year, so we are moving into October and only now are the Government coming up with these solutions when this has been an issue since April."

Transport secretary Grant Shapps is proposing to issue up to 5,000 visas valid until Christmas Eve to HGV drivers.