In an attempt to stave off a shortage of Christmas turkeys, the government also announced that 5,500 foreign poultry workers will be allowed into the U.K. beginning in late October and can stay until the end of the year.

Johnson’s pro-Brexit government is keen to downplay talk that the driver shortage is a result of Britain’s departure from the European Union.

However, when the country left the economic orbit of the EU at the start of this year, one of the bloc’s main tenets ceased to apply — the freedom of people to move within the EU to find work. With Brexit, tens of thousands of truck drivers left the U.K. to go back to their homes in the EU, further pressuring an industry already facing long-term staffing issues.