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Martin Lewis has spoken out about whether people should keep their investments or move to savings amid stock market turbulence caused by the Middle East conflict. Markets have been in turmoil since the USA and Israel attacked Iran – and various proposed peace plans have seen markets rise and then fall as hopes fade.

On his ITV Money Show Live this week, the personal finance expert was asked by some viewers if they were better off shifting their cash. He explained that volatility in itself wasn’t a bad thing -and gave one key piece of advice – think long term.

Mr Lewis said: “Now look, it goes up and down. That volatility is still there day by day. But over a 10-year period, you would generally expect these big indices. So they’re tracking lot lots of different shares. It’s not about one share. Lots of different shares are going to go up over time. And if you do not invest, if you’ve got the money, you are missing out on that level of growth.”

Co presenter Jeanette Kwakye said: “Two questions here. The first has come from Angela. She’s asking if current market volatility continues. How does it affect stocks and shares? Is it better to wait or go for it in the hope that shares rise at some point? And then we’ve got this coming in from Colin. ‘I keep hearing that we’re in a massive stock price bubble that’s likely to eventually burst. If this is the case, then shouldn’t we be saving cash instead?’”

Martin explained how the war was impacting things: “Well, we do of course have the Middle East situation going on, that huge volatility and with President Trump obviously volatile politician there, things change all the time. And equally, we’ve got volatility in the UK today. We don’t know what’s going in our political situation and uncertainty brings volatility.

“Plus, I mean, let’s play the negatives. The deputy governor of the Bank of England said there’s a lot of risk out there and yet asset prices are at all-time highs. We expect there to be an adjustment, a drop at some point.”

He said the Bank of England comments are ‘really just reflecting the uncertainty they see in the global economy’ right now. He added: “I think we see that uncertainty, too, but we say that the underlying outlook is actually much more resilient than that.

“Volatility is part of the course when you invest. Markets move around short term on news flow and on politics but where they go in the long term is what really matters. If you look at the US stock market over the past 5 years we’ve seen 180 new all-time highs the most recent of which was actually last week. So for all of this noise for all these scare stories the reality is markets have delivered financial markets have delivered strong returns for investors.”

Is there a right and wrong time to buy?

According to Mr Lewis people should really consider investment: “Well I don’t think there’s ever a wrong time to invested. I think there are always reasons not to invest or to convince yourself not to do it. But I think what’s really important is that long-term story, writing out the ups and the downs and making sure that you’re comfortable with that volatility as you go.

“Let’s just imagine we had a crash tomorrow and the markets dropped across the world to 50%. I mean, it’d be massive economic news and big economic disaster. If you invested there 10 years ago, you’re still not going to be happy. But in most cases, you’d still be up. And I think that’s the important point about I’m not making any predictions. I’m just saying this is why you got to think the long term. The worst thing you can do as a beginner investor is follow every day the price is going up and down. It’ll just make you feel sick and it’s not what it’s about. So, this is about putting money in for the long term.”