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Sir Keir Starmer will on Monday vow to shield “working people” from the economic fallout of the Iran war and punish profiteering, as he sets out support worth about £50mn for some households hit by higher energy costs.
The £50mn intervention will target more than 1mn households mainly in rural areas of Northern Ireland that rely on heating oil, a niche sector where bills have already soared in the wake of disruption to global oil supplies.
Starmer’s press event will come after energy secretary Ed Miliband on Sunday strongly signalled that ministers would step in to prevent a wider surge in household gas bills this summer, when the three-monthly price cap is revised.
“Whatever challenges lie ahead, this government will always support working people,” Starmer will say, adding that “ending the war is the quickest way to reduce the cost of living”.
“I will not tolerate companies trying to exploit this crisis,” he will say after claims of energy suppliers and petrol retailers cancelling orders and raising prices, despite industry denials of price gouging. “If the companies have broken the law, there will be legal action.”
Miliband said on Sunday that Britain was “intensively working” with allies on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally transits.
He also committed to take action to prevent household gas bills soaring when regulator Ofgem in July updates its three-monthly price cap, which limits the costs that households pay per unit of energy.
“As to any further help that may be provided . . . it depends on how long the conflict goes on, but people should be in no doubt this government’s number one priority is to tackle the cost of living crisis and we will do whatever is necessary to do that,” Miliband told Sky News.
Governments around the world are grappling with their response to the economic effects of Iran’s response to US-Israeli strikes. They have led to sharp drops in fossil fuel output in the Gulf and energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz, fuelling concerns over higher inflation.
Miliband believes the Middle East conflict has justified his policy of pursuing the rapid outlay of renewables and nuclear energy, improving energy security as well as cutting carbon emissions.
“If there is one lesson we must learn from this crisis, we cannot keep being on this fossil fuel rollercoaster,” he said.
Miliband said on Sunday that plug-in solar panels, which usually cost several hundred pounds, would be approved for use in British homes as part of efforts to accelerate homegrown power.
A safety review has concluded that these plug-in panels, which are small enough to be placed on a balcony or in a garden, are compatible with UK plug and electrical standards, meaning sales could begin within months.
The policy echoes a German scheme under which 1mn such panels have been installed in just three years.
Miliband also announced that the next auction of subsidies for renewable energy would be brought forward to July and hinted that the government could scrap a planned 6p rise in fuel duty in September if the Iran war continued.
But Starmer, who began 2026 with a pledge to deliver “positive change” for voters, is facing the much more immediate problem of helping consumers cope with rising prices. Most energy used in the UK still comes from fossil fuels, in particular transport and household heating.
In 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, then Conservative prime minister Liz Truss brought in a support scheme to subsidise energy bills for all households, which ended up costing about £50bn.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said any equivalent measures this year would be much more “targeted”, and Miliband on Sunday said the scale of any support scheme would depend on the trajectory of gas prices, which would in turn depend on the duration and scale of the war.
Freeing up greater production of North Sea oil and gas would not change fossil fuel prices, which are set on international markets, he said, adding: “We are a price taker, not a price maker.”
Claire Coutinho, Tory shadow energy secretary, said on Sunday that Donald Trump’s request for the UK to send naval ships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz “should certainly be explored” and called on the government to rule out the planned fuel duty rise.
“Even if the oil prices come down, we don’t think that should go ahead,” Coutinho told the BBC.
