A BBC presenter became the butt of the joke on social media on Saturday morning after he was sent to cover the petrol shortage.
Phil McCann was sent to a BP petrol station in Stockport which had run out of petrol.
But social media users were delighted with his name, which sounds like “fill my can”.
A number of panic buyers have been spotted filling up cartons with petrol in a bid to get around the crisis.
One social media user said: “Phil McCann! On fuel shortage story. @TheSimpsons couldn’t have written anything funnier than that. Well played #BBCBreakfast.”
Another said: “There is only one BBC reporter to do the story of panic-buying of fuel. And it is Phil McCann.”
A shortage in HGV drivers has disrupted supply chains, affecting food and petrol deliveries.
Boris Johnson is considering issuing 5,000 temporary visas for foreign HGV drivers to tackle the shortage. Temporary visas are also being considered for food processing employees.
No 10 insisted on Friday night that any measures introduced would be “very strictly time-limited”.
The panic buying has led one petrol vendor to introduce a £30 fuel cap.
EG Group, which has 341 petrol stations in the UK, said in a statement that the move would ensure all its customers “have a fair chance to refuel”.
HGV drivers and emergency services will be excluded from the spend limit which would apply to all its grades of fuel, it added.
BP said that around 20 of its 1,200 petrol forecourts were closed due to a lack of available fuel, with between 50 and 100 sites affected by the loss of at least one grade of fuel.
A “small number” of Tesco refilling stations have also been impacted, said Esso owner ExxonMobil, which runs the sites.
