Local Assembly member Angela Burns has described the situation regarding people panic buying as “bloody ridiculous.”

The remarks come following the outbreak of COVID-19 where people have panic bought in response to the crisis, despite reassurances from politicians and experts to say that there is plenty of food to go around.

Speaking on Saturday, the Secretary of State for thr Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice MP said there was no shortage of food but “buying more than you need means others may be left without.”

Following, the Prime Minister’s announcement on tighter restrictions, the websites of Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s crashed.

In a interview with the Observer, Ms. Burns condemned those people who have panic bought, causing hardship to other vulnerable people in society and did not hold back in how she felt.

Ms. Burns, said: “It’s totally disgraceful, they should be ashamed of themselves, I cannot tell you how many people have emailed me, absolutely desperate.

“They are old or they are disabled and they have always had an online order from Tesco or Asda or whoever it is and they can’t get a slot because so many people are panicking buying and then they get down to the shops to see if they can get it themselves and they get there and there is nothing.

“This is bloody ridiculous and I think it’s absolute idiocy on behalf of people. It’s shameful behaviour and I will say that to anybody who has gone out and panic bought,” she remarked.

“It’s totally unacceptable and it’s causing such hardship.”

The Assembly Member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire added that she couldn’t understand why people are buying so much toilet roll.

“You’ve got this loo roll shortage. Everything that COVID-19 does to you, the one thing it doesn’t do is not a tummy bug.

“You don’t need all those loo rolls and if you suddenly find that you’ve got COVID-19 you have to stay at home.”

Ms. Burns also described the situation with people panic buying as ‘sad’ and ‘terrible.’

“There are lots of people around and there’s a lot of processes in place to get you shopping and I think what is really sad is that there’s a huge number of people who haven’t just bought one extra can of beans, but they have gone out and brought 10 packets or 20 packets and they are going to stash them all in their store cupboard and then just leave them there because they probably won’t get round to using them,” she remarked.

“People are buying stuff that they never normally use, but now we’ve now got this terrible situation where you’ve got food banks that can’t get food to put into the food banks, you’ve got old people’s homes who can’t actually go out and buy stuff.”

The Senedd Member also called on people to follow countries such as Germany, France and Italy where full lockdown measures have been implemented.

“If we didn’t panic buy then there would be enough food for everyone and if you look at places such as Germany, France and Italy where they’ve stopped the panic buying because everybody has realised it will keep rolling in.

“There is no problem in the shop and people can go to the supermarket and get what they want and we need to stop it immediately.”

Turning her attention to emergency workers and the elderly who can’t get the food that they need thanks to people panic buying. Ms. Burns suggested the scheme where supermarkets set aside an hour for emergency workers and for old people wasn’t working.

She also said it wasn’t practical for those NHS workers or any other person who was working the night shift.

“In practical terms it’s not working well at all. Those people have to walk through crowds of people who are waiting outside the shop, what a way of spreading COVID-19.

“One of the points I’ve made to the Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething is that even the hour for old people from 8-9am isn’t actually any good because elderly people can’t get up that quickly.

“Many elderly people will use public transport, but you can’t get public transport because it usually doesn’t run that early in the morning.

“I think there are cleverer and smarter ways of making sure that there are food for older people, for vulnerable people, for disabled people and for the emergency workers who are working all the hours.

“But the real reality is that if we stopped panic buying and took a collective deep breath, we wouldn’t need special hours for all those people.”