Energy minister Michael Shanks reassures drivers ahead of chancellor’s statement to MPsGood 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. 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. [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. Look genuinely, people shouldn’t change their behaviour or their habits in the slightest. Continue reading...
