 The Tory government's response to a shortage of HGV drivers has so far been pretty underwhelming. At Tory party conference Boris Johnson said it wasn't his job to sort out shortages on supermarket shelves and the government's pledge to grant 5,000 emergency visas to lorry drivers has so far attracted only 20 successful applicants. Now in a bid to save Christmas the Tories have come up with a new plan getting prisoners to work as lorry drivers. But as this viral TikTok video shows there's a chance the plan could backfire. Now prisoners could be part of the solution to the recent lorry drive a shortage according to the Justice Secretary. Radical plan was unveiled today where serving inmates will be recruited to drive trucks. It's seen as offering a second chance but there aren't doubts. So how much would actually help is our consumer editor Chris Choi. Dominic Raab today highlighting a scheme where convicts are helping with the HGV crisis. Here we go. Wheel was Dean. He's on day release from jail working in haulage. His offense was importing drugs involving a lorry. I was thinking like presumably the press guy could have found because you know if you're doing a press shot you've got Dominic Raab the Justice Secretary getting in a van, getting in a lorry, HGV truck. What the first thing that you ask your press guys what was he done for? What was he imprisoned for? And is it going to make me look silly? And what were the people that they decided not to include that they went for the guy who imported drugs with the HGV lorry? You're coming at this all wrong. If you're the government PR person you're right. Which prisoner do we find? Do we just find Mr Credit Card fraud or do you go for the guy with relevant job experience in the area that you've just recruited him for? You're not thinking this through me. In seriousness letting prisoners work as long as you're paying them well isn't that bad a policy. Should we actually be celebrating this Ash? Supposed to me the key question is are they paying them properly? We know that prisoners in terms of prison jobs aren't making the same kind of wages that they would outside and don't think the minimum wage actually applies to prison labor. If we're just using prisoners as a hyper exploitable class of worker I think that's pretty bad. I'm not opposed to prisoners on day release having jobs. I think that prisons should take rehabilitation and integration in society a lot more seriously than they do just simply locking people up isolating them is nailed on the way to have the sort of really high reoffending you know recidivism rates that we do have in this country. I'm not opposed to it as long as they're being treated as any other worker with the same rights and pay.