THE UK Government’s plan to lure lorry drivers back on short-term visas is “offensive”, Tory ministers have been told.

A Polish HGV operator who lives in Glasgow told the BBC that Boris Johnson’s scheme flies in the face of Brexit policies which have “chased” European workers out of Britain.

Downing Street is planning to offer work permits to 5000 drivers until Christmas Eve as the country faces food, fuel and gas shortages. It has also been reported that the army is to be drafted in to help deliver petrol to filling stations.

But Tomasz Oryński, a journalist and HGV driver based in Glasgow, said the plan was too little, too late when he was interviewed on BBC Good Morning Scotland.

“I think it's a show of the insolence of the British government because to offer these temporary visas to people that you basically chased out of this country because of your Brexit policies, it's just offensive.

“It’s not my words only. I've looked under the comments on the Polish trucking website which was writing about it yesterday … most of it is not suitable for the radio. To give you some [idea], people just said that Brexit means Brexit and you voted us out, so you're dealing with it now.”

He acknowledged that there is also a shortage of drivers in other parts of Europe, though it is not “nearly as bad as in Britain”.

The driver continued: “Nobody will quit their jobs to come here to jump through all these hoops to get the visa, and then to work here on some agency job for three months and then be sent back to their home.

“From the Polish drivers I knew here, I'm the last one that still remains in Scotland, and they are all now working in other countries.”

He explained that he is hoping to move away from the UK once he is more financially secure.

LISTEN: Boris Johnson told EU drivers won't help him out of Brexit 's***'

Speaking later on BBC Radio 2, Oryński, said: “To think that migrants are like a tap with water which you can open and close when needed, it’s just insolence.

“You’ve even got these posters everywhere, ‘dogs are for life, not for Christmas’, and this is how you treat your drivers. You just want them to come to rescue and then bugger off when you no longer need them.”

The Prime Minister is reported to have been considering calling in the military to assist with fuel supply.

But the Environment Secretary insisted this morning that ministers have "no plans at the moment" to use the army to drive petrol tankers.

In a pooled clip for broadcasters, George Eustice said: "We are bringing Ministry of Defence trainers in to accelerate some of the HGV training to clear a backlog of people who want to carry out those tests, and there's definitely a role there for the MoD.

"In terms of other things we've no plans at the moment to bring in the army to actually do the driving, but we always have a Civil Contingencies section within the army on standby – but we're not jumping to that necessarily at the moment."

Industry leaders have warned drafting in the army will not on its own end the shortages on the forecourts.

The Petrol Retailers Association chairman Brian Madderson confirmed some training had been taking place "in the background" for military personnel.

But he warned it was not an "absolute panacea" and that there was no "single lever" the Government and the industry could pull to resolve the crisis.

Scotland’s deputy first minister John Swinney has said the country has “an adequate supply of fuel to meet normal demand, but it does hinge on being able to distribute that fuel to all locations”.

He added: "In a normal purchasing pattern then, I'm confident there is a distribution arrangement in place that can adequately supply those petrol stations.

"But obviously, if there is an increased demand for fuel, then that will put pressure on the distribution companies in being able to meet that demand in all locations around the country."