Increased sales of fuel from panic buying by motorists will bring in more than £32 million in extra fuel excise duty, it was revealed.

The AA calculated the figure after news that petrol sales shot up by 81% and diesel by 43% as motorists flocked to garages across the UK to fill up ahead of a possible strike by fuel tanker drivers.

The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents around 5,500 garages, blamed advice from the Government on keeping tanks topped up, including the much-criticised call by Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude to fill up jerry cans.

A spokesman said: "This is exactly what we didn't want - people panic buying. Deliveries are still being made to garages and we are advising people to continue with their normal buying habits."

AA president Edmund King said: "There is no fuel tanker strike and therefore if drivers followed normal fuel buying patterns there would be no fuel shortage whatsoever.

"We now have self-inflicted shortages due to poor advice about topping up the tank and hoarding in jerry cans. This in turn has led to localised shortages, queues and some profiteering at the pumps."

"Theoretically if 30 million cars with half full tanks are advised to fill up over 24 hours, this means that 750 million litres of fuel would be sold, whereas average sales over 24 hours would be 90 million litres. Hence the top-up advice means that demand for fuel has increased more than seven-fold. So it is no surprise that the "top-up" advice has lead to shortages."

Labour accused the Government of playing "political games" over the issue, following days of bad headlines over the Budget and dinners for Tory donors.

Opposition leader Ed Miliband called on Prime Minister David Cameron and Mr Maude to apologise for their handling of the situation.

"The Prime Minister is presiding over a shambles on petrol. The country is paying the price for the incompetent way he is governing.

"In a delicate situation which demanded statesmanship, the Government showed partisanship.

"They made a crude decision to play politics with petrol without regard for the consequence.

Firefighters were called to deal with a fuel spillage after a car was overfilled with petrol in, Crawley, West Sussex.

Around a litre of petrol spilt on to the road, which was sanded by crews from West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service just after 3pm yesterday.

Retail store Halfords reported "extraordinary high" sales of fuel cans, with sales of all cans soaring by 225% compared with this time last year after motorists bought them in "the thousands".

Sales of jerry cans are up by more than 500%.