Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at prime minister’s questions – UK politics live

PM to face opposition leader and MPs in the House of Commons

Polanski says the government should be doing more to improve home insulation, and on the drive towards renewable energy.

And he says the government should commit to ensuring energy bills do not rise above the April-June price cap.

The government should guarantee right now that it will not allow energy bills to rise beyond the April-June price cap – instead setting aside approximately £8.4bn to prevent a rise of up to £300 per household that could be coming down the track.

No, it’s not cheap. But the alternative is unacceptable: if the price cap rises, we will see interest rate rises. Mortgage rates up. Bond yields up. And inflation up – and we will be back into the doom loop that has done untold damage to our economy and caused misery for households across the UK for years now.

There are ways to pay. Instead of scrapping the windfall tax on energy companies, as this government is planning to do, we should be strengthening it instead. We need a real, loophole-free windfall tax with no exemptions for reinvesting in fossil fuels. A robust tax that claws back every single pound of reckless profiteering from this crisis and repurposes it immediately to protect every home in the country. And while taxing extreme wealth in the ways we need to will take time to implement, there are levers the government could pull right now – like equalising capital gains tax with income tax and reforming the base, to raise £12bn.

It’s time for the government to act decisively, eliminate the uncertainty that is plaguing people and the markets and insulate us from some of the worst economic effects of Trump’s war.

This was not a war of self-defence, there was no imminent threat. Negotiations were ongoing. It was, as the BBC’s international editor said, a war of choice.

People across the Middle East are terrified of what Trump and Netanyanhu’s war will mean for them and their loved ones. And the repercussions are echoing across the world as instability spreads and oil prices spike.

People are already struggling so hard just to make ends meet. People feel like they’re running every day just to stay in the same place. The idea that yet again – for the second time in just a few years – that we are going to have to deal with another enormous spike in the cost of the basics is unacceptable.

It’s unacceptable because we didn’t need to be here. It’s unforgivable that just four years after we last saw an energy price shock, that one triggered by Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, far too little has been done to protect this country, its people, and its economy – from the impact of yet another energy price shock.

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Rachel Reeves reveals push for fiscal devolution to English regions, says Brexit caused damage, and admits student loan system is ‘broken’ – as it happened

Chancellor says Brexit may have cost 8% of UK GDP in wide-ranging Mais lecture at Bayes Business School in London which also called for AI push

The number of people in England and Wales falling into insolvency has jumped.

There were 11,609 individual insolvencies registered in England and Wales in February, the Insolvency Service has reported this morning. This was 18% higher than in February 2025 and 6% higher than in January 2026.

The individual insolvencies consisted of 768 bankruptcies, 4,210 debt relief orders (DROs) and 6,631 individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs). The number of DROs in February 2026 was a record high in the monthly time series going back to their introduction in 2009, exceeding the previous high of 4,185 in August 2025.

The number of IVAs was higher than both January 2026 and the 2025 monthly average. Bankruptcies were 25% higher than in February 2025, although numbers were affected by the clearing of a backlog following the Insolvency Service moving to a new case management system.

Average 2-year fix has risen from 4.83% at the start of March to 5.28% today. It’s highest since April 2025.

Average 5-year fix has risen from 4.95% at the start of March to 5.32% today. It’s highest since February 2025.

“War in the Middle East has added almost £800 to a typical annual mortgage bill in just two weeks, which will be unwelcome news for anyone currently seeking a fixed rate deal.

“The average two-year fixed rate has jumped from 4.83% at the start of March to 5.28% today – its highest level since April 2025. The average five-year fix has risen from 4.95% to 5.32%, now at its highest since February 2025. For a borrower with a £250,000 mortgage over 25 years, that equates to paying £788 more per year on a two-year fix, or £651 more on a five-year deal compared to just a fortnight ago.

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Africa particularly vulnerable as Iran conflict disrupts supply chains, say experts

Food production in many African countries depends heavily on fertiliser imported from the Gulf through the strait of Hormuz

Countries in Africa, where farmers depend heavily on imported fertiliser and a large share of household income goes on food, are particularly vulnerable to supply chain disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East, experts have said.

The conflict has drastically disrupted trade through the strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane not just for oil and gas but also for fertiliser, which is produced in vast quantities in the Gulf.

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Trump claims he has ‘absolute right’ to impose new tariffs after supreme court blow

US supreme court has ‘ransacked’ the country, president argues, in wake of its ruling against his trade agenda

Donald Trump has claimed he has “the absolute right” to impose new tariffs after the US supreme court ruled many of the import duties he imposed last year were illegal.

The president attacked the court in a late night broadside on Sunday, accusing it of having “unnecessarily RANSACKED” the US – and failing to show him sufficient loyalty.

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Can the IEA put a lid on the price per barrel by releasing oil stockpiles?

Despite rare act of multilateralism, there is no guarantee the IEA’s release of 400m barrels from reserves will depress prices

When the global economy was still in the grip of the devastating 1970s oil crises, exposing the chokehold exerted by a few important oil states, the International Energy Agency (IEA) was created, in the hope of limiting future shocks.

Almost half a century on, the IEA’s 32 members have drawn up plans to hit the emergency button, for only the fifth time in its history.

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US inflation stayed flat at 2.4% in February before effects of war on Iran kicked in

Effect of war on prices not reflected in data, as Trump says only ‘fools’ would think oil price shocks would be significant

US inflation stayed flat at 2.4% in February, according to government data released Wednesday that provides a snapshot of the US economy before it was thrown into a tailspin by the US-Israel conflict with Iran.

The levelling comes after prices swung last year, reaching a four-year low in April before shooting back up in September. In late fall, inflation crept down again, reaching 2.4% in January.

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Aramco warns of oil market ‘catastrophe’ unless strait of Hormuz reopens soon

Saudi Arabian state oil firm calls crisis by far the biggest the region has seen but firm can reroute 70% of exports and tap crude held in storage

Saudi Arabia’s state oil company has warned of “catastrophic consequences” for the world’s oil markets if the US-Israeli war with Iran continues to block shipping in the strait of Hormuz.

The world’s biggest oil exporter expects to be able to supply the market with about 70% of its usual crude output despite the stranglehold on the vital trade artery, but its chief executive warned that there would still be “drastic” consequences for the world economy if the disruption continues.

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Iran war drives oil prices above $100 a barrel for first time since 2022

Donald Trump insists surge in energy prices is ‘very small price to pay’ as Middle East conflict sparks fresh stock market sell-off

Oil prices surged past $100 per barrel for the first time since 2022 as fallout from the US-Israel war with Iran continued to rattle global markets and leading economies moved to tackle a worsening energy supply crisis.

A weekend of escalating violence in the Middle East intensified concerns around a sustained supply crunch, propelling oil prices to their highest level in four years and triggering a deep stock market sell-off.

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Oil price continues to rise amid Middle East crisis but stock markets rebound across Asia

Reports of attack on US registered tanker in Gulf lifts crude by 3% to $84 a barrel as gas price also starts to climb

Stock markets have rebounded in Asia after days of heavy losses driven by the war in the Middle East, but oil and gas prices have continued to climb amid disruption to supplies.

South Korea’s KOSPI, which posted its biggest ever fall on Tuesday of 12%, rose by almost 10% on Thursday, while Japan’s Nikkei climbed by 1.9%. MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan jumped by 2.7%.

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European Commission proposes ‘Buy EU’ plan to compete against China

Plan, which aims to preserve jobs in clean tech and low carbon sectors, could include UK if there is reciprocal market access

The European Commission has proposed a “Buy EU” plan to boost domestic low-carbon industries and help the continent compete against China.

The commission published a draft regulation – called the Industrial Accelerator Act – on Wednesday, setting demands for EU-made and low-carbon content on bodies spending public money. The rules mark a major shift in economic thinking from Brussels, long a bastion of open markets.

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Maritime insurers cancel war risk cover in Gulf as Iran conflict disrupts shipping

Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed and vessels rerouted, sending some freight costs surging

Leading maritime insurers have cancelled war risk cover for vessels operating in the Gulf as the escalating Iran conflict disrupted shipping and sent some freight costs surging.

At least 150 vessels including oil and liquefied natural gas tankers have dropped anchor in the strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters, and at least three tankers were damaged and one seafarer killed over the weekend.

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UK house prices rise in February as chancellor avoids ‘negative speculation’

Rachel Reeves’ upcoming spring forecast has not led to slowdown, as property tax rumours did in November

House prices in the UK increased in February as Rachel Reeves avoided a repeat of the pre-budget “negative speculation” that depressed the market, as she prepares to present the spring forecast on Tuesday.

The average price of a home rose to £273,176 last month, up by 0.3% from the month before, Nationwide said. It matched January’s monthly increase, and was above analysts’ forecasts of a 0.2% gain. The annual growth rate remained steady at 1%, the country’s biggest building society said.

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Most senior council officers in England say building work hit by delays

Funding uncertainty is main concern, despite Labour’s pledge to revitalise construction, survey shows

Almost two-thirds of senior council officers have said they are seeing construction projects delayed, despite the key role of local authorities in creating the wave of new housing and infrastructure promised by Labour.

Before Rachel Reeves’s spring forecast on Tuesday, a survey of senior council officers showed that 40% do not think the local authority they work for is well placed to follow through on its construction plans.

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OBR a backseat driver with out-of-date maps, thinktanks tell Rachel Reeves

Chancellor urged to reform Office for Budget Responsibility to open way to more public investment

Rachel Reeves must reform the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to open the way to more public investment, an alliance of thinktanks has argued ahead of the chancellor’s spring forecast on Tuesday.

With Keir Starmer’s government under intense pressure after Labour’s defeat by the Greens in Thursday’s Gorton and Denton byelection, the thinktanks called on Reeves to review the watchdog’s remit.

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Trump raises tariffs to 15% on imports from all countries

President announced increase from 10% using different authority from mechanism that supreme court struck down on Friday

Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he would raise a temporary tariff rate on US imports from all countries from 10% to 15%, less than 24 hours after the US supreme court ruled against the legality of his flagship trade policy.

Infuriated by the high court’s ruling on Friday that he had exceeded his authority and should have got congressional approval for the tariffs he introduced last year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the US president railed against the justices who struck down his use of tariffs – calling them a “disgrace to the nation” – and ordered an immediate 10% tariff on all imports, in addition to any existing levies, under a separate law.

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Don’t be fooled by recent good news, the UK economy is still in a precarious state

Labour MPs may clamour for bolder spending, but – like their Tory and Reform counterparts – they ask for the unaffordable

Too many Labour MPs want it all, and no amount of pleading from the top of government about the depleted public finances seems to make a difference.

The mainly leftist MPs want all the wrongs of the last 15 years put right and quickly. Their next opportunity to demand more cash arrives when Rachel Reeves delivers her spring statement on 3 March.

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Retailers in UK plan to cut staff hours and jobs amid rising employment costs

BRC survey finds finance bosses expect technology to improve productivity, with 69% pessimistic about the economy

UK retailers are planning to cut staff hours and jobs amid rising employment costs and pessimism about the economy.

Almost two-thirds (61%) of finance bosses at retail companies said they planned to reduce working hours or cut overtime, according to the latest survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade body that represents most big retailers. More than half (55%) said they would cut head office jobs and 42% said they would reduce jobs in stores.

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OBR says its inadvertent release of budget report is ‘worst failure’ in its 15-year history – UK politics live

Office for Budget Responsibility says Rachel Reeves ‘had every right to expect that the [report] would not be publicly available until she sat down at the end of her budget speech’

Q: Yesterday you said Rachel Reeves was lying. Today you are saying she gave out false information. Are you still accusing her of being a liar?

Badenoch replies: “Yes.”

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OBR says inadvertent budget leak is ‘worst failure’ in its 15-year history

Investigation finds organisation’s leadership over many years was to blame for error, and similar breach happened earlier this year

Britain’s budget watchdog has said the early leak of its budget documents before Rachel Reeves made her speech was the “worst failure” in its 15-year history as it emerged a similar breach had occurred earlier this year.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said an investigation had found that the leadership of the organisation, over many years, was to blame for the early release of its Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) document online nearly an hour before Reeves’s address last Wednesday.

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People deriving income solely from state pension won’t be taxed, says chancellor

Clarification creates prospect of two-tier system for retirees solely on new state pension and those on private schemes

People who rely only on their state pension for their income will not have to pay tax on it, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said, creating the prospect of a two-tier system for those in retirement.

The new state pension is poised to rise to £241.30 a week next April, putting the annual income for someone receiving the standard payment at £12,547 – just below the personal tax allowance of £12,570 a year.

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