{"id":572317,"date":"2026-08-02T21:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T21:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/572317\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T21:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T21:12:10","slug":"healeys-profiteering-warning-on-food-and-fuel-risks-row-with-retailers-uk-cost-of-living-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/572317\/","title":{"rendered":"Healey\u2019s profiteering warning on food and fuel risks row with retailers | UK cost of living crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The chancellor, John Healey<\/a>, has said the government is standing by to prevent the public from \u201cbeing taken for a ride at the pump or the till\u201d as the Iran war continues to hit prices.<\/p>\n

While he said there had been \u201cno significant evidence of so-called price gouging\u201d during the crisis, he used a weekend column to tell the big retailers that ministers were \u201cwatching closely\u201d for any signs of profiteering.<\/p>\n

Healey faces a difficult economic balancing act as the energy price shock caused by the months-long conflict<\/a> in the Middle East reignites the cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n

Last week the Bank of England kept UK interest rates on hold<\/a> as it warned that a further escalation in the Iran war could drive inflation above 4% next year, adding to financial pressures on households.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conflict affects our national security, our UK bases, personnel and allies in the Middle East,\u201d Healey wrote in the Sunday Telegraph. \u201cBut it also threatens our economic security: impacting the family finances of millions of British people.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I know that many British businesses have been put under pressure by increasing costs too. Conflict and uncertainty increases inflation, threatens growth and pushes up costs for businesses and governments alike.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments about profiteering threaten a new war of words between the government and retailers. Amid ongoing public concern about the cost of living, it emerged earlier this year that Rachel Reeves, then the chancellor, had raised the prospect of a cap on food prices<\/a> to limit inflation caused by the Middle East conflict. The proposals prompted a backlash from supermarket bosses, with Stuart Machin, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer, calling the plans \u201ccompletely preposterous\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The British Retail Consortium suggested on Sunday that the new chancellor should instead be looking at the effect of tax increases, including employers\u2019 national insurance and business rates, on inflation.<\/p>\n

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Andrew Opie, of the British Retail Consortium, which represents big retailers including Sainsbury\u2019s, Tesco and Asda, said: \u201cSupermarkets operate in a highly competitive environment, delivering the most affordable food in western Europe. The government\u2019s independent competition regulator, the CMA [Competition and Markets Authority], has repeatedly found that fierce competition between retailers, not government action, has kept food prices as low as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The chancellor, John Healey, has said the government is standing by to prevent the public from \u201cbeing taken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-572317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}