Starmer adviser urges ministers to look at profits cap for energy and petrol firms
The government’s top cost of living adviser has called on ministers to explore a temporary cap on the profits of energy and petrol companies to prevent them from cashing in excessively on the war in the Middle East.Richard Walker – a Labour peer, the chair of Iceland supermarkets and the prime minister’s “cost of living champion” – said he had asked the government to examine limiting how much businesses were able to benefit from higher energy prices after Iran’s blockade of the strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route for Europe’s oil and gas, and the wider conflict in the region.“I have asked the government to consider a temporary profit cap … to stop producers and retailers exploiting the crisis to make windfall profits at the expense of consumers,” Walker wrote in a column in the Sunday Times.“As executive chairman of a retailer, I have no problem with profit.It’s what allows businesses to invest, employ people and pay tax.
But I do have a big problem with profiteering, especially when families are under real pressure.”His comments come after suggestions that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had been planning to ease the UK’s existing windfall tax – the energy profits levy – before the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February with airstrikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England governor, is due to meet Keir Starmer and senior ministers on Monday, as part of an emergency meeting to discuss ways to mitigate cost of living pressures brought on by the war.There is increasing alarm in Downing Street and the Treasury that a protracted conflict would not only require government intervention to alleviate the impact of soaring energy bills but also derail economic growth and remove fiscal headroom.The economic fallout from the US-Israeli war on Iran is increasingly compounding the cost of living crisis British households have faced since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago first sent bills soaring.
Consumers already face a sharp rise in petrol and diesel prices, while mortgage borrowers can expect higher repayments after Bailey warned that Threadneedle Street may need to raise interest rates in response to an inflation shock.Official figures on Wednesday are expected to show inflation remained at 3% in February.Before the outbreak of the war, the Bank had forecast a fall in the headline rate close to its 2% target this spring, helped by measures to cut energy bills announced in Reeves’s autumn budget.However, it warned last week that it expected inflation to remain above 3% this year because of the war on Iran.Highlighting the threat to Britain’s economy, KPMG warned that the rate of economic growth could be almost halved this year compared with 2025, from 1.
3% to 0.7%, as the energy shock drags down spending.Households energy bills could increase by about 10%, potentially more, if the conflict dragged on, it said.Higher borrowing costs triggered by the war would also add to pressures on the government finances, making it tougher for ministers to provide emergency financial support.Yael Selfin, the chief economist at the accountancy firm, said: “The weaker growth outlook coupled with growing cost pressures will likely see firms scale back any investment plans over the coming year.
Consumers could also cut back on discretionary spending to offset the squeeze from higher prices.”The concern within the cabinet is mirrored within the wider economy.On Sunday the TUC called for an emergency taskforce to help protect the UK from the economic fallout of the US-Iranian conflict – in tactics that would echo those used during the Covid-19 pandemic.The TUC general secretary, Paul Nowak, said: “The lessons from the pandemic are clear.When unions, employers and government came together we were able to move at speed to protect jobs, keep businesses afloat and give families security through an incredibly uncertain time.
“With the UK and global economy now facing huge shocks from the conflict in Iran we need that same approach again.“We can’t afford to sit back and wait for the damage to be done.We need to get around the table and get ahead of this crisis.”Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of the British Gas owner, Centrica, said an increase in energy prices may be “inescapable” if the war in the Middle East “stays as it is”, although he predicted that petrol prices would be affected much more than energy bills.“The world uses about 100m barrels of oil a day.
We’ve lost about 20% of that through the strait of Hormuz.The loss of gas through the strait of Hormuz being closed is about three or 4% of global gas,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.“So the impact on gas, and therefore on electricity bills, should be lower than the impact on oil.So my gut feel is that you’ll see more of an impact of this in the petrol pumps than you will in bills.”Asked about support to help people with bills, he said Centrica had held meetings with the government and hoped they would be looking at targeted support.
“I do think targeted help is far better than blanket help,” he said.
Meningitis B vaccine scheme widened to include some year 11 pupils in Kent
The meningitis B vaccination programme will be expanded to include year 11 pupils at schools affected by the outbreak in Kent, health officials have said.Figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show the number of cases of meningitis have fallen from 29 on Sunday, when 20 cases were confirmed and a further nine were under investigation, to 20 confirmed cases with a further three under investigation, as of 12.30pm on Monday.Officials started vaccinating University of Kent students on Wednesday 18 March. The following day, on a visit to the campus, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, said the programme would be expanded to more people, including sixth form pupils at four schools with known or suspected cases of MenB
Argos faces backlash over ‘influencer kit’ for toddlers
Argos has ignited a debate among parents and child development campaigners after promoting a wooden “influencer kit” aimed at toddlers.Critics have warned that the play set could normalise the precarious world of digital labour and prematurely expose children to the pressures of online visibility.The toy, designed for children aged two and over, is made entirely from wood and includes a tripod stand, a miniature camera with an adjustable aperture lens, a smartphone model, a tablet, and a microphone. All the items can be stored in a carrying pouch.Argos currently advertises the £15 product on its website as a tool designed to “cultivate children’s storytelling skills and creativity through career role-play”
UK medical council overhaul may mean more doctors struck off for racism and antisemitism
An overhaul of the General Medical Council is expected to lead to more doctors that face accusations of racism and antisemitism on social media being struck off.The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has launched a consultation on changes to the legislation governing the regulation of doctors, saying the move will lead to the biggest reform of the medical regulator, the GMC, in four decades.However, the line when it comes to the expression of anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian views is expected to be a continuing point of contention.Doctors facing disciplinary proceedings over wearing symbols and over social media posts have been bringing lawsuits against hospital trusts over the last year, arguing that their beliefs are protected under the Equality Act 2010.The DHSC says there have been “too many” recent examples of doctors using racist and antisemitic language, particularly on social media, without swift action
Property company denies trying to mass-evict tenants before England’s no-fault evictions ban
A property company accused of trying to mass-evict tenants in the weeks before no-fault evictions are banned has denied doing so, saying it is simply implementing “routine and lawful tenancy management”.A statement from Criterion Capital, set up by the billionaire property magnate Asif Aziz, was issued in response to Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, who wrote to the company to seek “urgent” answers about its plans.Criterion has reportedly sent section 21 notices, which give notice of proposed eviction, to large numbers of its tenants. At prime minister’s questions this month, the Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh said she knew of at least 130 such notices issued by Criterion at just one development, Britannia Point, in her south London constituency of Mitcham and Morden.In a letter to the directors of Criterion, seen by the Guardian, Pennycook said that if the company was seeking to remove tenants before the Renters’ Rights Act comes into force on 1 May, banning so-called no-fault evictions in England, it would be the actions of a “thoroughly unscrupulous landlord”
No new meningitis cases linked to Kent outbreak found, health agency says
No new cases of meningitis linked to the outbreak in Kent have been detected, raising hopes that it has been well contained and has not led to people elsewhere catching the disease.The number of people affected remains at 29, of which 20 are are confirmed and nine probable cases in what health officials say is an “explosive” outbreak – the biggest to occur in the UK in a generation.Two of the 20 people confirmed with the disease have died: Juliette Kenny, 18, a secondary school student, and an unnamed University of Kent student. The other 18 are thought still to be in hospital.Nineteen of the 20 confirmed cases were of meningitis B
‘Not just a Jewish service’: Hatzola ambulances serve whole community, say volunteers
‘Accountants, plumbers, surveyors – whatever it might be, they’ve all got day jobs. Everyone has got kits in their car, everyone responds from wherever they are,” said Yossi Richman, on life as a trained volunteer paramedic at Hatzola, the ambulance service funded by Jewish giving.Richman also serves as a governance lead at Hatzola in Golders Green, north London, where four ambulances were attacked by arsonists in the early hours of Monday morning.The attack has left Jewish communities reeling. But alongside the concerns about community safety amid rising antisemitism, there’s a determination to protect the humanitarian civic principles Hatzola represents
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