'This is chaos': Christmas prices will rise in Britain, truckers say

FILE PHOTO: A shopper looks at produce and empty shelves of the meat aisle in Co-Op supermarket, Harpenden, Britain, September 22, 2021. REUTERS/Peter Cziborra

TATSFIELD, England (Reuters) -Truck drivers have a cautionary message for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson: an acute shortage of drivers is ratcheting up their wages and that will have a knock-on effect on prices for food and gifts in the run-up to Christmas.

An air of chaos has gripped the world's fifth-largest economy in recent days as a deficit of truckers left fuel pumps dry across the land, and a spike in European wholesale natural gas prices tipped energy companies into bankruptcy.