Government urged to ‘get a handle’ on supply chain crisis

Chair of commission scrutinising post-Brexit trade deals says ministers must act now to get shelves stocked for Christmas

The government is being urged to get a handle" on the supply chain crisis, as the chair of a cross-party commission created to scrutinise the UK's post-Brexit trade deals said ministers need to act now to avoid empty shelves in the run-up to Christmas.

Red tape and labour shortages from Brexit have exacerbated problems that are being acutely felt across production, processing, manufacturing, retail and of course logistics," said Aodhan Connolly, who chaired an extraordinary session of the UK Trade and Business Commission, a group of cross-party MPs and business representatives set up as an independent adviser to government in April.