The Wanted’s Tom Parker condemns ‘selfish’ petrol panic buyers as he travels to hospital for brain tumour treatment

‘Can we just think about others before ourselves?’ said star

Ellie Harrison
Thursday 30 September 2021 09:01 BST
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Long queues at petrol stations across UK amid fuel crisis

The Wanted singer Tom Parker has criticised “selfish” people who have been panic-buying petrol.

Parker, who revealed last October that he had been diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma, said he was concerned about getting to hospital appointments.

According to the MailOnline, Parker said in an Instagram Story that now appears to have expired: “To all you selfish a***holes out there that are stealing all the f***ing petrol. I’ve got an actual appointment to get to for my medication, so can we just think about others before ourselves.”

Following reports that the UK is estimated to be short of more than 100,000 lorry drivers, customers across the country have been panic-buying petrol for almost a week, with many filling stations left empty.

The resulting fuel shortages have prompted widespread disruptions including hours-long queues, fights at petrol station forecourts, and key workers unable to get to work.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has suggested that low-level offenders who have been given community sentences could be used to tackle the UK’s lack of HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicles) drivers.

“We’ve been getting prisoners and offenders to do volunteering and unpaid work,” he said.

“Why not if there are shortages encourage them to do paid work where there’s a benefit for the economy, benefit for society?

“If you give people skin in the game, give them something to lose, if you give them some hope, they’re much less likely to re-offend.”

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