Ukraine<\/a> and analysts say the price cap on household bills could jump by hundreds of pounds in the summer.<\/p>\nShadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride, also called on the government to change course on drilling in the North Sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabour\u2019s economic mismanagement has left us vulnerable to the potential impacts of events in the Middle East,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey must now axe the Fuel Tax, back North Sea Oil and Gas and come forward with a proper plan to cut the deficit and get the benefits bill down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir Jim is one of a growing number of senior UK business and industry leaders calling on Sir Keir and Mr Miliband to change course.<\/p>\n
Greg Jackson, the founder and chief executive of Octopus, urged the Government last week to \u201cuse what\u2019s available from the North Sea\u201d.<\/p>\n
Offshore Energies UK, the trade body for the UK oil and gas industry, has stepped up its campaign to replace the windfall tax.<\/p>\n
It says the 78% flat rate total tax imposed on UK oil and gas profits is driving companies away and destroying 1,000 jobs a month.<\/p>\n
Ms Reeves told MPs on Wednesday that \u201cnothing is off the table\u201d when it comes to supporting households and businesses on energy costs.<\/p>\n
Ms Reeves told MPs on the Treasury select committee: \u201cIf prices remain at an elevated level, revenue would come in but of course that revenue would be needed to help with people\u2019s bills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Miliband has yet to approve the Rosebank field, which he described as \u201cclimate vandalism\u201d in opposition.<\/p>\n
A decision is said to be imminent.<\/p>\n
The Rosebank field is the largest undeveloped oil and gas field in British waters. It is estimated to contain around 300 million barrels of oil.<\/p>\n
Jackdaw, 150 miles east of Aberdeen, could provide enough gas to heat 1.4 million UK homes, developer Shell has said.<\/p>\n
Economic growth had already lost momentum in the second half of last year as consumers, anxious about possible tax increases and rising unemployment, held back.<\/p>\n
In the Spring Statement in March, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – the government’s official forecaster – cut its prediction for how much the UK’s economy would grow this year to 1.1% from 1.4%.<\/p>\n
Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said growth was “likely to remain elusive”.<\/p>\n
“The UK economy started the year on the back foot and activity is expected to weaken further amid sharply rising energy prices,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves during a roundtable with petrol retailers and energy suppl (Image: PA) Keir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,84711,2798,169225,1445,56,1893,54,55],"class_list":["post-474399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-energy-independence","tag-north-sea","tag-north-sea-oil-and-gas","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-uk","tag-uk-economy","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474399","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=474399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Middle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Rachel-Reeves-6799947.jpg\" "\\"Middle")
<\/p>\n![\"Economic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GDP-6799954.jpg\" "\\"Economic")
<\/p>\n