The minister for roads has said dismissed claims that there is a "panic" in fuel buying in case of a threatened strike by tanker drivers.

Mike Penning told the Today programme's John Humphrys that drivers should take a "common sense approach" by topping-up when passing a service station.

"If people hold reserves in their tanks, it's going to be a much better situation should, wrongly, Unite go on strike," he said.

He admitted it was a mistake for his colleague Francis Maude to advise people to store fuel in jerry cans because their capacity is 20 litres which is more than the official limit for the amount that can be safely stored at home.

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