𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Rachel Reeves is “making a killing at the nation’s expense” as energy prices surge as a result of the war in Iran, Reform UK’s economy spokesman has claimed. Robert Jenrick, who will serve as Chancellor if Nigel Farage becomes Prime Minister at the next election, said it is “frankly outrageous” that cash-strapped Britons are “paying through the roof in taxes to Rachel Reeves when they can barely afford to heat their home and put food on the table”.

Labour has announced a £53million support package for vulnerable people hit by increases in the cost of heating oil, but Mr Jenrick dismissed this as “small change”. He said the Chancellor could net £40million in extra taxes a week as a result of the conflict. This is through higher petrol and diesel prices and greater household, industrial and business energy costs.

Accusing Ms Reeves of a “dereliction of duty”, he said: “Hard-pressed Brits are paying taxes to Rachel Reeves and she is banking that money and doing nothing to help them in their hour of need. So she’s basically making a killing at the nation’s expense. She’s coining it in. She’s making a killing off the backs of pensioners and hard-pressed British families right now and it needs to end.”

Reform has pledged to scrap VAT and green levies on household energy bills, claiming its measures would save the average family £200 a year. The Chancellor is also under mounting pressure to scrap plans to phase out from September the 5p cut in fuel duty introduced after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered the last energy shock.

Mr Jenrick said: “If Rachel Reeves cared about how tough things are for people right now, she would scrap her plans to increase fuel duty. If she doesn’t, Reform will reverse it in our first Budget.”

With May’s local elections looming, Reform has made high energy costs a key campaigning issue – even urging voters to visit nigelcutmybills.com to enter a prize draw to have their entire street’s bills paid for one year.

Mr Jenrick said the “serious point behind it” is that “everyone is hurting at the moment”. UK household electricity prices are higher than almost every other large industrialised country.

Describing the human cost of high energy prices, he said: “There are pensioners whom I’ve met who have spent the winter shivering, having to turn down their thermostat because they can’t afford to heat their home and are now worried about what the future holds for them. I’ve met people whose oil bill has gone up by 200% and they literally cried when they received the bill because they didn’t know how they’d be able to pay for it. Enough is enough.”

Mr Jenrick attacked “net zero madness” and pushed for new oil and gas exploration to start in the North Sea immediately.

He said: “The first thing that Rachel Reeves could do would be to tell [Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary] Ed Miliband to grant the licenses so we can drill, drill, drill in the North Sea.”

The former Conservative cabinet minister said it is “scandalous” Norway is exploring new North Sea fields while in the British territory “zilch is happening”.

A Government spokesman strongly denied Mr Jenrick’s claims there could be a a £40million a week tax windfall for the Treasury as a result of higher costs.

He said: “This isn’t true. Domestic energy price rises reduce VAT revenues overall. We understand people are worried about how global conflicts could affect the cost of living. It’s still too early to know the full impact of this crisis, but as the Chancellor said, she will take the necessary decisions to support families and protect public finances.”

Mr Jenrick said: “Our number one priority is ensuring that this war doesn’t have any worse effect on people’s cost of living here in the UK than it already is and so we want the war to come to an end as quickly as we can.”

The war in Iran has focused minds across the political spectrum on the importance of energy security – not just to keep costs down but to keep the nation running.

Nick Butler, a former adviser to Gordon Brown, warned that Britain’s energy imports from Norway would be targeted by Russia in a war and this could lead to the “physical breakdown of supplies to key areas of the economy”.

There are growing calls for the importance of home-sourced oil and gas to be recognised as the country “transitions” towards a clean energy future. The Government is being pushed to allow more production in the North Sea to boost public finances and make the UK less reliant on imports.

Aberdeen City Council co-leader Christian Allard – who wants to make the city the “net zero capital of Europe” – warned that “without oil and gas there won’t be any energy transition”.