Government could legislate to tackle coronavirus black market profiteers

Rother Valley Tory Alexander Stafford last week called for emergency laws to deal with “predatory, vicious, and uncaring [...] black-market profiteers” who had hiked their prices and hoarded goods to resell to desperate punters as the coronavirus crisis worsened.

He likened them to the spivs of the Second World War and said mothers in his constituency had been forced to go without supplies for their babies.

Today at Prime Ministers’ Questions he asked Boris Johnson: "Can the Prime Minister assure me that he's in regular contact with supermarkets and suppliers to ensure that goods are getting to the shelves where they are needed and will he join me in calling on people to only take what they need, not to stockpile and to stamp out the disgusting scourge of black market profiteering?"

Mr Johnson responded: "Yes indeed, and I think that profiteering is something that we should be looking at from a legislative point of view in this House as has happened before in this country.

"But I can tell him that the supermarkets do have adequate supplies, our supply chains as (Mr Stafford) knows are very good. We've relaxed delivery hours, but it is very, very important everybody in their shopping acts reasonably and considerably for other people."