Keir Starmer has been shot down after he claimed Labour was protecting Brits from the cost of living. The Prime Minister made the statement this morning on X, stating that in the « face of global instability », the Government was acting to « protect British interests abroad », and to « protect people here from the cost of living ».
Starmer doubled down on this support package today when referencing the cost of living in Prime Minister Questions (PMQs), where he insisted that the quickest way to reduce prices was for the war to end. He insisted the UK will « not be drawn into the wider war ».
« I want to see this war end as quickly as possible, » he said. « The longer it continues, the bigger the impact on the cost of living, and that’s where we’ve intervened to support households with cost of heating oil. »
The Government has also vowed to protect British citizens in the conflict region. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed yesterday that a third of the 300,000 UK nationals stuck in the Middle East have been flown home since the start of the war.
Unlike electricity and gas, the price of heating oil is not regulated with an upper price limit. Around 1.5million UK households rely on heating oil to power their homes, representing around 5% of the 28.6 million households registered in the Labour Force Survey in 2024.
Labour’s support package will not support gas and electricity users, although Ofgem will be reducing the annual price cap for gas and electricity from April, and people will pay less for the energy they use until at least June.
The Prime Minister has also raised concerns over claims that some heating-oil companies cancelled orders before sharply increasing prices.
He warned that if companies were found to have exploited the crisis to make money from working people, they would face consequences of the law.
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