Shoppers face empty shelves at Christmas without urgent solution to labour shortage, government warned

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Shoppers could face gaps on supermarket shelves this Christmas despite government assurances that the festive season is “safe” from labour shortages and surging enrgy prices, food industry bosses have said. It came as experts warned that the UK’s gas supply crisis looks set to continue for months, with little sign of a fall in record-high gas prices that have threatened supplies of fresh food, forced steel plants to halt production and left 1.5 million gas and electricity customers in limbo after their suppliers went bust. “The basic dynamics of the market are not changing.” One thing that could help alleviate the situation is if UK production which has gone offline for necessary maintenance was brought back online, Mr Freedman said. And with winter approaching, when demand will rise, prices could get significantly worse.” “We’re maintaining production at normal levels but huge extra costs like these can’t simply be absorbed or ignored.”