Politics latest: Reeves to unveil crackdown on ‘profiteering’ firms exploiting Iran war amid surge in prices – UK Times

Politics reporter Athena Stavrou writes:

Angela Rayner has urged the prime minister to “pick more fights” to win back voters, as she issued fresh criticism of Sir Keir Starmer.

The former deputy prime minister, who has widely been seen as a potential successor to Sir Keir, warned voters are “impatient for change” in a speech at a fundraising dinner on Monday night.

Urging the government to take stronger action to fix systems voters feel are “rigged against them”, she said: “They feel that nobody understands and cares about the difficulties they go through. And this isn’t just people who you would naturally associate with struggling, naturally associate with poverty.

“But these are professional people, people that are working really hard, people that have got two, three jobs and they’re still not able to get to the end of the month with their wage packet.”

According to The Telegraph, she added: “And they need to know they’ve got a government on their side, and they’re impatient for change and I understand their impatience. So I think we have to pick more fights, personally.”

The intervention comes less than a week after she warned Labour was “running out of time” to deliver change and cannot “go through the motions in the face of decline”.

The chair of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee said the Iranian regime uses proxies for its attacks abroad to make it difficult for police to detect.

Labour peer Kevan Jones told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “In our report in 2025, we highlighted the Iranian regime, whether it be the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) or Iranian security services, do attack dissidents and target the Jewish community, and they do that increasingly, not directly, but through proxies.”

He agreed when asked if Iranian use of proxies makes it hard for police, adding: “Because what you are dealing with here is not necessarily just organised crime groups, but also people who are just paid.

“It is an approach which the Russians are using. For example, the attack last year on the warehouse in East London, many of those individuals who are not directly linked to any organised crime groups, are just paid money.”

He said: “It is quite clear the Iranians don’t care about what you call collateral damage if people were harmed. I would caution, though, with this attack, that the group that’s claimed credit for it, Ashab al-Yamin, is a new group. It only appeared in March. It’s claimed responsibility for attacks on Jewish schools in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, for example.”

The former MP for North Durham, now known as Lord Beamish, also highlighted the threat to the Jewish community from right-wing extremism.

He said: “The Jewish communities are increasingly under threat from homegrown, UK based right-wing groups as well.

“Whether it’s Iranian involvement, or whether it’s extreme right-wing terror, they just want to create confusion, mistrust and fear in the Jewish community, and ensure communities are divided.”

A government minister has rejected calls for using more oil and gas from the North Sea amid calls to approve further drilling in an effort to reduce energy prices.

The Conservatives are set to force a vote in the Commons demanding new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea to help tackle soaring fuel prices, branding the ban “sheer lunacy”.

But energy minister Michael Shanks said doubling down on fossil fuels would be “the absolute wrong lesson” to learn from the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

“Our future lies in building a clean power system that breaks us away from the volatility of fossil fuels,” he told the BBC. “It gets us off this roller coaster. More than half of the economic shocks this country’s faced have been caused by fossil fuel crises around the world. We’re determined to insulate households from that in the future that means moving away from fossil fuels building a clean power system protecting households and bringing down bills.”

Though the US pause on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure calmed markets and saw oil prices ease back, Sir Keir Starmer said Britain must be prepared for the Iran war to continue “for some time” on Monday.

Donald Trump had threatened to obliterate Iranian power plants if Tehran did not open the Strait of Hormuz to shipping by 11.45pm on Monday, and then said he would “postpone” the strikes after “very good and productive” talks with Tehran.

But Iranian officials have denied any such negotiations took place.

Political reporter Athena Stavrou reports:

A minister has insisted the government will “fight people’s corners” as Rachel Reeves weighs up plans to implement support for British households in the wake of the war in the Middle East.

The chancellor is set to outline plans to guard against unfair price rises in a statement to MPs on Tuesday, following an emergency Cobra meeting on Monday afternoon.

Energy minister Michael Shanks said that minister’s have “left nothing off the table”, as he discussed further support that might come into place.

“We also know that we might need to introduce further support,” he told Sky News. “We are three weeks into a conflict, it’s changing very rapidly. We will continue to monitor what’s happening.”

When asked if it would likely be targeted rather than universal support, he said: “ I think most people would accept that when we’ve got limited public financing, looking at targeting that to people who need it the most is probably an important thing for us to look at.

“But we also want to make sure we don’t miss people in that, because often means testing things does miss those people who are just on the edge.”

Political reporter Athena Stavrou reports:

The UK was aware, but not involved, in the most recent talks between the US and Iran to end the war in the Middle East.

The US president insisted that “very good and productive” discussions on ending the war were taking place — a claim which has since been labelled as “fake news” by the Iranian parliament speaker, who said there had been no talks.

Energy minister Michael Shanks told Sky News that the government was “aware that the talks were happening”, but said it was not a part of them.

“I think in truth, we’ll see how these play out over the coming days,” he said.

 “But obviously we’ve been really clear, anything that leads to de escalation of this conflict is welcome. Diplomacy is really important, so if there are people having these conversations that can only be a good thing.”

Rachel Reeves will outline plans to guard against unfair price rises amid fears among the public over surging oil and fuel prices sparked by the Iran war.

The Chancellor will make a statement to MPs after laying out her plans to the Prime Minister and colleagues in an emergency Cobra meeting on Monday afternoon.

Those will include an “anti-profiteering framework” to detect and crack down on companies exploiting the Middle East crisis and help the Competition and Markets Authority root out price gouging.

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer said he was looking at boosting the competition regulator’s powers, giving it “further teeth” to deal with profiteering.

This could involve giving regulators “time-limited, targeted powers” and the Treasury, Department for Business and Trade and regulators were said to be working “at pace” on what those powers could be.

The Chancellor is also expected to tell the Commons that Britain needs a diverse mix of energy to shield the public from volatile fossil fuel markets and stress the importance of not letting “blockers” get in the way of boosting Britain’s nuclear power supply.

Ms Reeves will announce that she is exploring government-backed indemnities for critical energy security projects so construction can continue if a project is legally challenged.

Motorists should not drive slower nor buy fuel differently because of the Iran oil crisis, an energy minister has said.

Michael Shanks was asked by Times Radio if drivers should change their habits as a result of the oil restrictions caused by the conflict in the Middle East.

He told the broadcaster: “They 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.”

Mr Shanks added: “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 directly if drivers should slow their speed, Mr Shanks replied: “Look genuinely, people shouldn’t change their behaviour or their habits in the slightest.”

Sir Keir Starmer said on Monday he was looking at giving the Competition and Markets Authority “further teeth” so it can better protect customers.

As part of that, Downing Street said the Government will not hesitate to give the CMA and other regulators “time-limited, targeted powers” if needed. The Treasury, Department for Business and Trade and regulators are working “at pace” on what those powers could be.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey and energy secretary Ed Miliband gave updates on the economy regarding the crisis in the Middle East in a Cobra meeting on Monday.

They stressed that de-escalation and ending the Iran conflict was “the best thing we can do for the economy”, Downing Street said in a readout.

“The Chancellor set out the steps she will take tomorrow – in a statement to Parliament – that will help protect working people from unfair price rises.

“She spoke about a plan to detect and crack down on companies if they exploit the crisis in the Middle East. This will take the form of a new anti-profiteering framework which will help regulators like the CMA to root out price gouging.”