{"id":465740,"date":"2026-03-09T10:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T10:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465740\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T10:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T10:25:09","slug":"no-immediate-threat-to-uk-gas-supplies-says-minister-after-two-days-left-reports-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465740\/","title":{"rendered":"No immediate threat to UK gas supplies, says minister after \u2018two days left\u2019 reports | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no immediate threat to energy supplies in the UK despite rocketing oil prices, a senior minister has said, as Keir Starmer tried to reassure people about the impact of the crisis in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The impact of US-Israeli strikes in Iran, and retaliatory attacks from Tehran elsewhere in the region, was \u201cclearly very concerning\u201d, Steve Reed<\/a>, the communities secretary said, adding that much depended on how long hostilities continued.<\/p>\n

Starmer was due to visit a community centre in London later on Monday, where he was due to give comments aimed at providing reassurance, saying the most important issue for him was the cost of living.<\/p>\n

But in a series of broadcast interviews on Monday, with oil prices shooting past $100 a barrel, Reed accepted that there was not much the UK government could do to shape events, or the impact they had on the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t yet know how long this conflict will go on for,\u201d he told BBC One\u2019s Breakfast programme. \u201cIt could be over in days. It could continue for longer. So I think the sensible and rational response from government is to monitor the situation and make sure we\u2019re prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reed said: \u201cIt\u2019s clearly very concerning what\u2019s going on in the Middle East. There\u2019s no point to him trying to pretend anything other than that is the case. But the government will be keeping a very close eye on the situation with oil prices. We\u2019re monitoring that regularly. I don\u2019t think that there is cause for undue alarm yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were, he added, sufficient supplies remaining of oil and of gas. Government sources have dismissed as incorrect a report in Monday\u2019s Times<\/a> claiming the UK only had two days of gas supplies.<\/p>\n

In comments released by No 10 before his visit, Starmer said that as well as being worried about loved ones in the Middle East, Britons were \u201crightly worrying what this means for life at home \u2013 their bills, their jobs, their communities\u201d.<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cI want to address those concerns head on. I will always be guided by what is best for the British public. And no matter the headwinds, supporting working people and their families with the cost of living is always top of my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer argued that because of existing government policies over previous month, such global shocks would \u201cweigh less heavy on people\u2019s lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

Reed reiterated this point in his interviews, arguing in particular that another fossil fuel price shock, after the impact on gas prices of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, showed the need for a move towards renewable energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the previous government had done what this government is doing, and had driven the switch to clean energy, so more wind, wave and solar power, power and more nuclear power, then we wouldn\u2019t be at the mercy of people like the ayatollahs in Iran or Vladimir Putin in Russia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Reed added that while the government was closely watching the situation in the Middle East, which has effectively blocked the strait of Hormuz, through which large numbers of oil tankers usually pass, \u201cthere is no threat to supplies into the country at the moment\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe government, of course, all of us, are looking at what\u2019s happening with the oil crisis. We have to keep that under review to make sure that we\u2019re taking any action that might be, that might be required. But we don\u2019t know how long the situation is going to go on for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is no immediate threat to energy supplies in the UK despite rocketing oil prices, a senior minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-465740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}