Monday evening UK news briefing: Blame Brexit for lorry crisis, says German party leader

Evening briefing: Today's essential headlines

Harassment case | An MP threatened to send naked pictures of a woman to her family because she was jealous of her friendship with her partner, a court has heard. Claudia Webbe, 56, also allegedly called 59-year-old Michelle Merritt "a slag" and made a threat against her involving acid during a campaign of harassment. Read on for details.

• Labour | Reeves says freedom of movement no longer party policy

• Insulate Britain | Protesters block M25 despite injunction

• 'Vive la revolution!' | Emmanuel Macron pelted with egg by protester

• Graduates | Younger workers face bill as Treasury eyes student loans

• Protective porkers | Pigs patrol airport to deter hazardous geese

The big story: Blame Brexit for lorry crisis, says Scholz

In a crisis, there is always someone who says "I told you so".

Today, the favourite to become Germany's next chancellor has lectured Britain about its lorry driver crisis despite Europe's biggest economy suffering its own huge shortfall.

Olaf Scholz, the candidate for the centre-left SPD, blamed Brexit and the end of free movement for the shortages that have crippled supply chains and sparked huge queues for fuel at garage forecourts amid petrol panic-buying.

The frontrunner to be Germany's new leader risked sparking a row with Westminster despite his country also struggling with its own shortfall of between 45,000 and 60,000 drivers.

That is before you take into account the other major problem awaiting the next chancellor: rising energy costs.

Read how Vladimir Putin's gas power play has created a conundrum for whoever succeeds Angela Merkel.

Europe Editor James Crisp analyses how she still dominated the German election, even though she did not run.

George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, issued a fresh plea to motorists to stop panic buying, amid new warnings that up to 90 per cent of British fuel stations have run dry.

Mr Eustice blamed shortages on motorists for filling up when they did not need to.

Fuel providers have moved to reassure consumers that petrol supplies will stabilise within days.

It has led health bodies and trade unions to urge Boris Johnson to use the Government's emergency powers to give critical workers priority at petrol stations.

Watch as tempers fray at pumps.

'Black Swan' events

This is all against a backdrop of wider challenges which it is feared could lead to a new Winter of Discontent.

Oil prices have jumped to three-year highs today as high gas prices increase demand for oil-burning to generate electricity.

Meanwhile, airport hubs Crawley and Luton are facing a sharp jump in unemployment this week as Britain's furlough capitals bear the brunt of an end to the Chancellor's jobs support scheme, brought about by the worst pandemic since 1918.

Read how there is a race against time in Government to fight off multiple so-called 'Black Swan' events.

The Prime Minister at the weekend demanded a pay rise for lorry drivers, claiming that would sort the shortage and get petrol garages flowing again, but Ross Clark analyses why this turns the clock back and makes the Conservatives even more Labour than Labour.

Finding fuel

So how long could all this last?

The Telegraph understands that between 1,500 and 2,000 filling stations across the country have run out of at least one type of fuel.

BP has said it is hopeful fuel stocks at forecourts will stabilise and start to rebuild at some point in October.

But even when the crisis alleviates, customers could still be facing higher prices.

What could you do now? Here are some tactics for finding petrol stations with fuel.

The Government hopes its push for renewable energy will eventually help shield Britain from future energy crises but Sam Laidlaw outlines some uncomfortable truths on the issue for ministers.

Comment and analysis

• Tom Harris | Angela Rayner refuses to understand ordinary voters

• Norman Tebbit | Only threat of prison will stop motorway protestors

• Shane Watson | Ten reasons Seventies-style winter may not be so bad

• Jane Shilling | Beware penning portraits of your nearest and dearest

• Jason Burt | Will Solskjaer ever be good enough for Man Utd? No

Around the world: China accuses UK of 'evil intentions'

The Royal Navy has sailed a frigate through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, announcing the rare move on social media in what analysts called a signal to Beijing that the UK views the territory as international waters. China blasted the Royal Navy for "harbouring evil intentions" over the transit by HMS Richmond. Read the context of the voyage.

Monday big-read

'Sometimes the whole crew is in tears'

The nostalgic antidote to our throwaway culture, The Repair Shop can make a grown man cry, writes Boris Starling

Read the full interview

Sport briefing: Ryder Cup's seven calls that backfired

A totally dominant American team hammered Europe to win the Ryder Cup in a record winning margin on Sunday. Padraig Harrington was at the helm of Europe's crushing loss. Read on for the seven key areas where the Irishman could have done better. Aside from the heavy loss, Oliver Brown points out another factor which left a bitter aftertaste - the sight of the Americans' constant spitting. In cricket, Moeen Ali has confirmed his retirement from Test cricket, which Nick Hoult laments has exposed the folly of England's short-term thinking.

Editor's choice

1. Marriage Diaries | I'm getting sick of my rich wife's working class virtue-signalling

2. Money Makeover | 'Should I have 12 buy-to-lets or invest in an Isa?'

3. For sale | A £1.75m houseboat with three decks and a circular bath

Business briefing: Accounting group fined £2.3m

Grant Thornton has been fined £2.3m by the accounting watchdog for a raft of failings and a "serious lack of competence" in its audits of Patisserie Valerie, which collapsed in 2019 following a major accounting scandal. The Financial Reporting Council also handed David Newstead, the accounting firm's director of audit, a fine of £87,750 and banned him for three years from carrying out statutory audits. Read how the watchdog said the Patisserie Valerie audits missed numerous red flags.

Tonight starts now

Woodcarver's wonders | An exhibition marking the tercentenary of the death of the virtuosic woodcarver Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721) may sound like a lovely idea, but how, practically, can it be done? After all, Gibbons, who, in 1693, was appointed master carver to King William III, decorated the interiors of palaces, churches, and stately homes, and many of his ensembles remain in situ. This show at Compton Verney in Warwickshire manages to feel like of one of those big exhibitions at the British Museum about the ancient world. Read on for details.

Three things for you

• Watch | D-Day: Invasion, Channel 5, 9pm and more of tonight's TV

• Book | Larger than an Orange by Lucy Burns, review

• Play | Telegraph Puzzles offers today's crossword, sudoko and more

And finally... for this evening's downtime

What really went wrong for The Beatles | Released in 1970, in the aftermath of the group's break-up, the film Let It Be had only a limited run, entering legend as a gritty, vérité record of The Beatles’ creative exhaustion, acrimonious bickering and final dissolution. Mick Brown examines a fresh telling of the tale, by the Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson in an epic three-part documentary.