THERE are long delays on the A27 as hundreds queue for fuel amid a national shortage.

Panic buying for fuel has continued this morning as motorists queue on the carriageway between Lewes and Kingston.

It comes after a weekend of traffic "chaos" across the city as dozen of petrol stations ran dry as a result of huge demands.

One motorist caught up in the A27 traffic this morning said there are queues on both sides of the carriageway.

They said: “After you come out of the roundabout at Kingston and head towards Brighton there is a queue.

"Everyone had to go into one lane because of a lorry at the garage.

“I could see there was queuing on the other side of the A27 west towards Lewes at the garage along that section too.”

It comes as multiple reports suggested that Boris Johnson is today mulling over whether to follow the drastic step of sending in the Army to drive oil tankers as “frenzied buying” added to fuel supply issues caused by a lack of HGV drivers.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has refused to rule out requesting military assistance after queues for the pumps continued across the country on the weekend.

Mr Shapps has already backed down over his reluctance to import foreign labour to solve the HGV driver shortage by creating 5,000 three-month visas to bring in extra hauliers to address delivery pressures.

The cabinet minister told the BBC the move would fix the “100 to 200” fuel tanker driver shortfall, as he urged motorists to be “sensible” and only fill up when needed to help alleviate the queues.

Long waits at filling stations saw police called to a scuffle at a north London forecourt as motorists continued their panic buying which was sparked after concerns from BP were leaked to the media that the lorry driver shortage could impact its ability to keep up with fuel deliveries.

The surge in demand led the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) to warn that as many as two-thirds of its membership of nearly 5,500 independent outlets were out of fuel on Sunday, with the rest of them “partly dry and running out soon”.