Boris Johnson has provided an update on supermarket shelves in the run-up to Christmas warning shelves could be empty for months.

The Prime Minister conceded that supermarket shelves could be empty for months due to a huge lack of HGV drivers and soaring global gas demands.

The UK food shortages could damage plans in the months leading up to Christmas after last year’s Christmas celebrations were halted amid Covid lockdown restrictions.

Mr Johnson assured reporters while boarding a flight to the United States that problems with food supply would be temporary however was unable to rule out that issues could last for months.

Boris Johnson provides update on UK food shortages

Boris Johnson said: "We’re experiencing bottlenecks in all kinds of things as the world wakes up from Covid.

"It’s like everybody going back to put the kettle on at the end of a TV programme, you’re seeing huge stresses on the world supply systems.

"But you’re also seeing businesses bouncing back strongly."

The PM blamed the coronavirus pandemic for issues with food supply felt across the UK.

He continued: "It is fundamentally caused by the global economy coming to life again.

"The guy ropes are pinging off Gulliver and it’s standing up, and it’s going to take a while, as it were, for the circulation to adjust.”

Asked whether that could take months, he replied: “It could be faster than that, it could be much faster than that.

"But there are problems as you know with shipping, with containers, with staff – there are all sorts of problems.

"But then these are problems that affect the entire world. I think market forces will be very very swift in sorting it out."

Boris Johnson refuses to rule out Christmas lockdown

Boris Johnson refused to rule out a Christmas lockdown for a second year in a row but insisted that it is “very much not the plan”.

The Prime Minister was forced to cancel Christmas plans and enforce a national lockdown days before the festivities last year.

Asked whether he would be forced to introduce Christmas lockdown restrictions again he said: “That is very much not the plan.

““I just want to go back to what I said about plan A and plan B.

“Plan A is what we’re on, and plan B is what we might have to do. It’s a graduated series of steps and we certainly don’t want or expect to have to do anything like last Christmas.”