Johnson’s Brexit First Strategy Collides With Empty Shop Shelves
- U.K. won’t give EU truckers temporary visas to ease shortage
- Growing shortages of produce could prompt a government u-turn
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Boris Johnson’s reluctance to turn to the European Union to ease a supply chain crisis that has seen shelves in supermarkets run empty has highlighted his government’s priority: Brexit first.
For the prime minister, who spearheaded a campaign to leave the EU which vowed to “take back control” of the U.K.’s borders and secure more jobs for British workers, immediately turning to cheap EU labor to fix a national shortage of truck drivers would be politically fraught.