Starmer on why your bills are rising again

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the Iran crisis has driven up energy prices in the United Kingdom, speaking during a visit to defence firm Stark in Swindon on Friday (5 June).

Starmer made the comments while addressing workers at the site, where he linked the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Iran to costs facing households back home. He said the economic impact of both wars was visible across the country, and that energy prices were the most obvious effect.

The Prime Minister said the United Kingdom was facing a war on two fronts, with the war in Ukraine now in its fifth year and conflict continuing in the Middle East.

The impact on bills

Starmer set out a direct link between the two conflicts and energy costs. He said that when the Ukraine war started, energy prices went up, and that prices had risen again because of the Iran crisis.

He told workers that everything else followed from those increases, describing the effect as obvious to people across the country.

The Prime Minister said the Strait of Hormuz remained closed. He framed the closure as part of the wider Iran crisis affecting the United Kingdom, alongside the deployment of British armed forces in and around the Gulf states to defend them from attacks from Iran.

Starmer noted that British pilots had been in the sky within hours of the start of that conflict, intercepting incoming fire aimed at civilians in the Gulf states and at British service personnel based there.

He described the current period as more dangerous and volatile than at any time in his life. He said the Chief of the Defence Staff had stated in media appearances that morning that in 35 years of service he had never known the world as dangerous as it is now.

The Prime Minister said the United Kingdom had responded with sanctions on Iran and Russia that he described as among the strongest in the world, and that the country was acting against the shadow fleet supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin in his war effort.

He said a UK-led and French-led coalition had been formed to give reassurance for the passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz once it was safe for them to go through. Starmer said operators of vessels, energy companies, bankers and insurers wanted reassurance before passing through the strait.

Spending and jobs pledge

Starmer said the government had increased defence spending to 2.6%, which he described as the biggest sustained increase since the Cold War. He said a Defence Investment Plan would be published before the NATO summit taking place in a few weeks.

The Prime Minister said the plan would be conditional on creating good, well-paid skilled jobs across the country, and that every community needed to see the opportunity it carried. He said the funding and capability would come on the condition that the jobs went with it.

Starmer added that his first duty as Prime Minister was to keep the country and its people safe.

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