There is no immediate threat to UK energy supplies despite soaring oil prices, a senior minister has claimed, as Keir Starmer sought to reassure people about the impact of the crisis in the Middle East.
The impact of the US-Israeli attacks in Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes elsewhere in the region was “clearly very worrying”, said Steve Reed, the communities secretary, adding that much depended on how long hostilities lasted.
Starmer was due to visit a community center in London later on Monday, where he was due to make reassuring comments, saying the most important issue for him was the cost of living.
But in a series of interviews broadcast on Monday, as oil prices soared above $100 a barrel, Reed accepted there was not much the UK government could do to shape events or the impact they had on the country.
“We still don’t know how long this conflict will last,” he told BBC One’s Breakfast programme. “It could be over in a few days. It could go on for longer. So I think the government’s sensible, rational response is to monitor the situation and make sure we are prepared.”
Reed said: “It’s clearly very worrying what’s happening in the Middle East. There’s no point in trying to pretend that’s not the case. But the government will keep a close eye on the oil price situation. We’re monitoring that regularly. I don’t think there’s any reason for undue alarm yet.”
Sufficient reserves of oil and gas remain, he added. Government sources have dismissed as incorrect a Times report on Monday which claimed the UK only had two days of gas supply.
In comments published by No 10 ahead of his visit, Starmer said that, as well as being worried about loved ones in the Middle East, Brits were “rightly worried about what this means for life at home: their bills, their jobs, their communities”.
He continued: “I want to address those concerns head-on. I will always be guided by what is best for the British public. And regardless of the headwinds, supporting workers and their families with the cost of living is always a priority for me.”
Starmer argued that due to government policies in place over the previous month, such global shocks ““They weigh less in people’s lives.”
Reed reiterated this point in his interviews, arguing in particular that another shock to fossil fuel prices, following the gas price shock of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, showed the need to move toward renewable energy.
“If the previous government had done what this government is doing, and pushed the shift towards clean energy, meaning more wind, wave and solar power, power and more nuclear power, then we wouldn’t be at the mercy of people like the ayatollahs in Iran or Vladimir Putin in Russia,” he said.
Reed added that while the government is closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East, which has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, through which large numbers of oil tankers often pass, “there is no threat to supplies to the country at this time.”
He added: “The government, of course, all of us, are looking at what is happening with the oil crisis. We have to keep that under review to make sure we are taking any action that may be necessary. But we don’t know how long the situation is going to last.”
