No fuel shortage in Britain, says minister, as Reeves prepares to set out economic response to Iran war
Good morning. At lunchtime Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will give a statement to MPs that will cover what the government is doing, and (more tentatively) might do, in response to the soaring global energy prices caused by the Iran war. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, also creating a global energy shortage, the Conservative government ended up spending £40bn supporting families and firms with energy bills over the following winter. Reeves’s problem is that she has not got £40bn spare. With spring upon us, and people starting to turn down their central heating, the issue may not seem particularly pressing in many households (although heating oil and petrol prices are already soaring.) But, by the end of this year, this could be the sort of colossal economic crisis that gets remembered for half a century.
As Chris Mason explains in a good preview, Reeves is expected to cover three points. She is expected to confirm that the government wants to give the Competition and Markets Authority new powers to deal with any potention profiteering by oil companies. She will confirm that the government wants to go “further and faster to secure the next generation of nuclear power and to reclaim Britain’s place as a leading nuclear nation” (as the Treasury puts it in its overnight preview).
And she is also set to set out some ideas about how the government might help households with energy bills if it thinks this is needed when the current energy price cap runs out at the end of June. What she won’t do is unveil a plan; it is too early for that. But Mason says she will “talk about the principles that will drive any further support to families if energy bills spiral in the coming months”, and she is expected to endorse the hints being dropped by Keir Starmer yesterday about any support package being targeted, not universal.
Michael Shanks, an energy minister, has been on the airwaves this morning taking questions ahead of Reeves’s statement, and he has stressed that there is no need for drivers to worry about a fuel shortage. He told Times Radio:
double quotation mark [Drivers] should do everything as absolutely normal because there is no shortage of fuel anywhere in the country at the moment. We monitor this every single day, I look at the numbers personally. There’s no issue at all with that …People should go about their business as normal. That’s what the RAC and the AA have said. It’s really important people do that. There’s no shortage of fuel and everything is working as normal.
Asked if people should drive more slowly to conserve energy, Shanks replied:
double quotation mark Look genuinely, people shouldn’t change their behaviour or their habits in the slightest.
Ministers do believe there is no fuel shortage. But they are also saying this because they don’t want to say anything that might trigger panic buying.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet.
9.30am: Executives from X, Meta, TikTok and Google give evidence to the Commons science committee about misinformation on social media.
9.45am: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, launches his party’s local elections campaign in West Surrey.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit meeting members of the Jewish community in Stamford Hill in north London.
11.30am: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, makes a statement to MPs about the economic response to the Iran war.
Afternoon: MPs debate a Tory opposition day debate calling for the windfall tax on energy companies to be abolished, and for the ban on new oil and gas licences for the North Sea to be lifted.
2.30pm: Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, and Jenny Chapman, the development minister, give evidence to the Commons international development committee.
Afternoon: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is on a visit in Leeds where he is due to speak to the media.
And at some point today the business department is publishing a written ministerial statement giving an update on the goverment’s commitment to publish documents about how Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was appointed a trade envoy.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Key events
Labour was wrong to block Burnham from being candidate in Gorton and Denton, Lisa Nandy says
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has criticised Labour’s decision not to allow Andy Burnham to stand as the candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection. In a long interview with the House magazine, she said:
double quotation mark I think it is right that members are allowed to make their own choices about who they want to be their candidates in elections – I’ve always thought that right. And while I respect the views of colleagues on the national executive committee, had I been sitting in that seat – is that what you’re asking me, what I would have voted? – yeah, I would have voted to allow him to stand, as Lucy [Powell] did.
Nandy said she understood the NEC’s argument that he should not be allowed to stand as a candidate because he is mayor of Greater Manchester and should serve out his time in office. But, she implied, respecting internal Labour democracy was more important.
double quotation mark [Labour members] deserve to be in the driving seat of their own lives, and it offends me when people are not, and I think that goes for our members as much as everybody else.
Ed Davey attacks Reform UK for wanting to copy ‘Trump’s nasty politics’
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, will present his party as an opponent of President Trump’s “nasty” politics when he launches his local elections campaign this morning.
In extracts from his speech released overnight, he attacks Reform UK in particular for being keen to copy Trump.
He says:
double quotation mark Some politicians would rather divide our communities than fix them. They’d rather point the finger of blame than get their hands dirty. They want to import Donald Trump’s nasty style of politics over here.That’s not who we are. We’re different. We don’t do division. We do potholes and police officers, doctors’ appointments and cleaning up dirty rivers. We do the hard work that actually makes people’s lives better.
The Liberal Democrats will change our politics so we can fix the country we love. Every vote for the Liberal Democrats in May is a vote for a strong local champion who will bring our communities together and get the job done.
In a briefing note, the Lib Dems say:
double quotation mark Reform-led councils elected last year have mimicked the White House in dodging media scrutiny, with an unprecedented ban on local journalists in Nottingham. In Durham, they have scrapped renewables projects that would’ve saved taxpayers tens of thousands. Across the country, their Musk inspired Doge projects have failed to find savings, leading to Reform councils raising council tax despite promising to cut it.
Targeted energy support package ‘most efficient use of public money’, minister says
In his Times Radio interview Michael Shanks, the energy minister, confirmed that the government is more interested in a targeted energy bill support package (targeting those most in need) than a universal one (targeting everyone). (See 8.56am.) This would be “the most efficient use of public money”, he said.
He said:
double quotation mark Genuinely we are looking at every option. Clearly part of that is, is there a way to target support at people who need it most? I think most people would recognise that as the most efficient use of public money but we also want to make sure that we’re not missing people …But, in honesty, we’re three weeks into this conflict, although people are really worried there’s no certainty of how this is going to end or when and so we are looking really carefully at what that longer term support needs to be.
Ministers rebuff trade body’s call to boost North Sea oil and gas production
The UK government has dismissed a warning from an energy trade body that failing to produce more homegrown North Sea oil and gas will leave the UK increasingly reliant on imports at a time of rising global instability, Jillian Ambrose reports.
No fuel shortage in Britain, says minister, as Reeves prepares to set out economic response to Iran war
Good morning. At lunchtime Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will give a statement to MPs that will cover what the government is doing, and (more tentatively) might do, in response to the soaring global energy prices caused by the Iran war. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, also creating a global energy shortage, the Conservative government ended up spending £40bn supporting families and firms with energy bills over the following winter. Reeves’s problem is that she has not got £40bn spare. With spring upon us, and people starting to turn down their central heating, the issue may not seem particularly pressing in many households (although heating oil and petrol prices are already soaring.) But, by the end of this year, this could be the sort of colossal economic crisis that gets remembered for half a century.
As Chris Mason explains in a good preview, Reeves is expected to cover three points. She is expected to confirm that the government wants to give the Competition and Markets Authority new powers to deal with any potention profiteering by oil companies. She will confirm that the government wants to go “further and faster to secure the next generation of nuclear power and to reclaim Britain’s place as a leading nuclear nation” (as the Treasury puts it in its overnight preview).
And she is also set to set out some ideas about how the government might help households with energy bills if it thinks this is needed when the current energy price cap runs out at the end of June. What she won’t do is unveil a plan; it is too early for that. But Mason says she will “talk about the principles that will drive any further support to families if energy bills spiral in the coming months”, and she is expected to endorse the hints being dropped by Keir Starmer yesterday about any support package being targeted, not universal.
Michael Shanks, an energy minister, has been on the airwaves this morning taking questions ahead of Reeves’s statement, and he has stressed that there is no need for drivers to worry about a fuel shortage. He told Times Radio:
double quotation mark [Drivers] should do everything as absolutely normal because there is no shortage of fuel anywhere in the country at the moment. We monitor this every single day, I look at the numbers personally. There’s no issue at all with that …People should go about their business as normal. That’s what the RAC and the AA have said. It’s really important people do that. There’s no shortage of fuel and everything is working as normal.
Asked if people should drive more slowly to conserve energy, Shanks replied:
double quotation mark Look genuinely, people shouldn’t change their behaviour or their habits in the slightest.
Ministers do believe there is no fuel shortage. But they are also saying this because they don’t want to say anything that might trigger panic buying.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet.
9.30am: Executives from X, Meta, TikTok and Google give evidence to the Commons science committee about misinformation on social media.
9.45am: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, launches his party’s local elections campaign in West Surrey.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit meeting members of the Jewish community in Stamford Hill in north London.
11.30am: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, makes a statement to MPs about the economic response to the Iran war.
Afternoon: MPs debate a Tory opposition day debate calling for the windfall tax on energy companies to be abolished, and for the ban on new oil and gas licences for the North Sea to be lifted.
2.30pm: Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, and Jenny Chapman, the development minister, give evidence to the Commons international development committee.
Afternoon: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is on a visit in Leeds where he is due to speak to the media.
And at some point today the business department is publishing a written ministerial statement giving an update on the goverment’s commitment to publish documents about how Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was appointed a trade envoy.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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