Sir Keir Starmer is set to chair an emergency Cobra committee tomorrow (Tuesday) to discuss the ongoing impact of the Iran war. The Prime Minister will bring together the emergency committee alongside representatives from the Bank of England to examine the conflict's economic toll against a backdrop of soaring oil prices.
Speaking at the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers' (USDAW) conference in Blackpool this morning, Starmer said he had convened the meeting "so you can be sure we will stand by working people in this crisis. I have to level with you about Iran. The truth is, the economic consequences could still be with us for some time. You don't need to be a politician to know that, you can see it on every petrol forecourt across the country."
The Cobra meeting follows oil prices reaching a near three-week high today, after fresh hopes of peace negotiations between the US and Iran faltered. Talks, scheduled to take place in Pakistan over the weekend, were cancelled as US President Donald Trump announced that Washington's envoys would no longer be heading to Islamabad due to a lack of progress with Iran, reports PA. Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Trump said: "If they want, we can talk, but we're not sending people."
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Rising bills are causing an 'alarming debt problem' for millions. Last week, Trump indefinitely prolonged the ceasefire between the US and Iran, which was brokered on April 7. However, a lasting settlement remains elusive, and the critical Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil supplies are transported, remains effectively blocked.
Oil prices dipped in mid-April when it seemed that headway was being made towards reopening the strait, but Trump's weekend announcement has sent prices surging once more. The cost of benchmark Brent crude maintained its upward trajectory, climbing 2% to just under $108 (US) a barrel during early morning trading today.
At the USDAW conference, Starmer reaffirmed that the Government had capped household energy costs until July, irrespective of developments in Iran, while fuel duty is set to remain frozen until September. Fuel duty is subsequently scheduled to rise incrementally, unwinding a 5p cut originally introduced as a temporary measure following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, ministers have faced considerable pressure to maintain the cut amid rising petrol prices.
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