More than £33bn was wiped off the FTSE 100 first thing this morning amid freight and travel bans and ongoing fears of a no-deal Brexit.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold crisis talks today after France banned lorries carrying freight from the 海角视频 and countries around the world ended flights following the revelation of a new mutant coronavirus strain.
Meanwhile talks on a post-Brexit trade deal will continue after there were no breakthroughs at the weekend with "significant differences" still remaining.
Today Transport Secretary Grant Shapps insisted the public would not see any disruption in the supermarkets ahead of Christmas as a result of France banning British freight.
He said hauliers were “quite used to anticipating disruption” and that there were variations in supply “all the time”.
He told Sky News on Monday: “The absolute key is to get this resolved as soon as possible. I’ll be speaking again to my opposite number Jean-Baptiste (Djebbari) later this morning.
“There’s a meeting taking place actually right now in Europe about it, in order to co-ordinate approaches.
“It’s not really in anybody’s particular interest to not have hauliers going across, not least because they are mostly European hauliers and the goods are mostly theirs, so they will not want them perishing any more than we would want the border closed.”
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Mr Shapps added: “Immediately as soon as the French said, perhaps slightly surprisingly that they would stop hauliers, rather than just passengers, we were in touch with a group known as the Kent Resilience Forum. They are well used to planning for exactly these kind of circumstances.
“We will be opening up Manston as a lorry park today and providing welfare for some of those drivers as well, while also being in very close contact with the French over what will happen next.
“The Kent Dover-to-Calais Eurotunnel, what we call the short straits, is probably about 20% of goods going to and from, in and out of the country.
“But it’s not the mainstay. Most goods actually come in and out by unaccompanied containers and those will continue to flow.”
Asked about what the shortages could be, Mr Shapps said: “Obviously we don’t want these links to be closed for too long, but it’s not unusual for them to be closed and disrupted.
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“In the short term it’s not a specific problem. But of course the key is to get it resolved.”
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The general manager of trade group Logistics 海角视频, formerly the Freight Transport Association, has urged the public not to panic-buy following France’s freight lorry ban.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Alex Veitch said the ban is only affecting outbound freight with drivers in a truck, while inbound goods are still moving.
He said: “This is why we are saying at the current time, please, there is no need to panic-buy, there are goods available in the shops, retailers are doing everything they can.
“But at the same time it is serious and we do need a resolution as quickly as possible.”
His message was supported by Ian Wright, the chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation - though he warned there could be longer-term supply issues.
He said: “The problem is the return journey of drivers coming to the 海角视频. If they cannot be guaranteed either that they will get out of the 海角视频 because of the congestion or that they will be able to secure a return journey full of whatever product it is, that’s going to make it much more unlikely for them to come in the first place.
“And, over time, because the transport system requires these round trips, that will reduce the ability of us to bring food into the country after Christmas if that takes effect.
“We need a pragmatic solution that gets drivers across the border and into the 海角视频 by whatever route in exactly the same way we had throughout the lockdown in March and in the earlier part of the year.”