Chancellor Rachel Reeves today took a swipe at former Prime Minister Liz Truss for previously only helping the richest households with energy bills, as she set out plans to help the poorest families if they’re hit by soaring energy bills as a result of conflict in the Middle East.

Household energy bills in Great Britain could increase by more than £330 a year to almost £2,000 from this summer after the Iran war pushed the UK’s gas market past three-year highs.

Speaking in the Commons earlier today, Reeves said the government has begun contingency planning for ‘every eventuality’.

The government has today also announced a new ‘anti-profiteering framework’ for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – saying she “will not tolerate any company exploiting the crisis”.

Unlike Truss, the Chancellor has said that only the poorest households will get government support if the conflict pushes up gas and electricity charges.

Truss’ premiership ended in disaster after she launched unfunded tax cuts for the rich as part of a disastrous mini-budget that sent the markets into turmoil.

She also capped everyone in the country’s energy bills at £2,500 a year after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine caused a spike in gas prices and funded the move via general taxation and extra government borrowing.

Reeves said the government would help the poorest households should energy prices continue to rise.

She said: “The previous government pushed up borrowing, interest rates, inflation and mortgage costs with an unfunded, untargeted package of support under Liz Truss. That gave the support to the most wealthiest of households.

“That left us with high levels of national debt, a cheque written then for a bill that is still being paid today.

“I can confirm to the House that contingency planning is taking place for every eventuality so that we can keep costs down for everyone and provide support for those who need it most, acting within our iron-clad fiscal rules to keep inflation and interest rates as low as possible.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

The post Rachel Reeves takes swipe at Liz Truss for helping richest families pay their energy bills as she sets out support for poorest households appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Tracy Brabin, Labour mayor of West Yorkshire, has urged the prime minister to reconsider his Brexit ‘red lines’ and explore joining a customs union with the EU, arguing that the current settlement is holding back growth across her region.

Labour’s 2024 manifesto committed the party to ‘reset’ relations with the EU by reducing trade barriers, while ruling out rejoining the single market or customs union. Since taking office, Starmer has maintained that position, repeatedly insisting the UK will not return to those frameworks or to EU membership.

But following a recent trade mission to Switzerland and Germany, Brabin has signalled local economic realities, particularly in West Yorkshire, demand a more ambitious approach. A customs union, which allows tariff-free trade between members, would in her view remove significant friction for exporters and help revive regional growth.

“If we are serious about growth, we must be braver about our relationship with Europe,” she said. “That means a customs union relationship with the EU.”

Her argument is rooted in the day-to-day experience of businesses across West Yorkshire. In practical terms, she says, Brexit has translated into fewer orders for manufacturers in Bradford, increased administrative burdens for health tech firms in Huddersfield, and missed opportunities for financial services companies in Leeds.

“In West Yorkshire, the value of goods we exported to Europe in 2023 was barely any higher than in 2018,” she said.

These local concerns mirror national trends. Since the UK’s departure from the EU, exporters have faced additional costs and bureaucracy. A late-2023 survey by the British Chambers of Commerce found that 49 percent of businesses view customs checks and declarations as a barrier to exporting, rising to 62 percent among manufacturers. Tariffs and duties were cited by 40 percent of firms, while 38 percent pointed to regulatory hurdles such as product certification. Together, these factors have made trading with Europe more complex and less competitive.

The government is attempting to ease some of these pressures. A proposed Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with the EU aims to reduce paperwork and costs, particularly in the agri-food sector. Earlier this month, environment secretary Emma Reynolds said such a deal could eliminate “mountains of paperwork” and reduce delays, with a target start date of mid-2027.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who represents a neighbouring Leeds constituency, has acknowledged that Brexit has weighed on growth and living standards.

“Brexit has not been good for our country, for growth, for prices in the shop. It’s almost 10 years since we voted Leave,” said the Chancellor.

“That ship has sailed but there’s an awful lot we can do to improve our trading relations. Where that requires alignment in our national interest, we should absolutely align.”

Locally, Tracy Brabin’s intervention resonated, prompting supportive reaction across social media. Many commenters framed her proposal as a practical, common-sense response to the pressures facing businesses in West Yorkshire.

One user described the idea as “a no-brainer,” arguing that the benefits would extend well beyond Bradford, Huddersfield and Leeds to the wider regional economy. Another simply wrote: “She’s spot on.”

The post West Yorkshire makes the case: Mayor Tracy Brabin calls for a rethink on Brexit to unlock regional growth appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

The shadow chancellor Mel Stride has been criticised for claiming that the government wants to reverse Brexit and that it should stop blaming Brexit for the UK’s economic woes. 

Delivering the Mais Lecture at Bayes Business School today, Rachel Reeves said “Brexit did deep damage”.

She added that although trade deals with India, the US and other allies are “extremely helpful and beneficial”, that “no trade deal with any individual nation” can outweigh the importance of the UK’s relationship with the EU.

Reeves said that “closer alignment [with the EU] is the right course for Britain”, and that this will require the government “to make, and win, the political arguments”. 

In response to Reeves’ proposals for closer ties with the EU and the single market, the Tory shadow chancellor accused the chancellor and prime minister of wanting “to row back on Brexit”.

Stride claimed: “Under increasing pressure, having mismanaged the economy, Reeves would rather point the finger at Brexit than accept their poor choices have been a disaster for our economy.”

Joe Meighan, Public affairs manager at the European Movement, told Left Foot Forward: “Mel Stride is rabble rousing, the Government have been clear about their red lines, and these do not include reversing Brexit. 

“To suggest, as Stride does, that the Government points too heavily to what was perhaps the worst self-inflicted economic and political move in modern memory is absurd. Whatever choices this Government has made have been constrained by the disastrous decision and execution of our exit from the European Union. 

“We welcome any steps the Chancellor is willing to take to repair the damage. While we understand they will be within the “red lines” of the manifesto, we urge that in future, nothing should be off the table.”

Commenting on the shadow chancellor’s claim, Tom Brufatto, Executive Director of Policy and Research at Best for Britain, which campaigns for closer UK-EU ties, said: “Stride’s laughable suggestion that the mess his government made of Brexit isn’t responsible for much of the economic malaise facing the UK economy just shows how out of touch with the public – and frankly irrelevant – the Conservative Party has become.”

Reacting to Reeves’ Mais Lecture, Naomi Smith, Chief Executive at Best for Britain, said: “This is a welcome and overdue shift in tone: the Chancellor is right that the UK economy needs alignment with Europe to achieve growth, as independent analysis by Frontier Economics makes clear, and our polling confirms British voters overwhelmingly support, no matter their political persuasion.”

Smith added: “While alignment on food, drink and energy are excellent first steps, they barely move the growth needle, because the real boon for the UK and the EU, comes from deeper cooperation across the board: aligning all industrial and service sectors would claw back half of the GDP the OBR calculates the UK lost since Brexit.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

The post Mel Stride’s claims Brexit should not be blamed for UK’s economic woes called ‘absurd’ appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, has said that Rachel Reeves must “wake up” and back investment in British industry, or stand down as chancellor. 

Graham’s comments come as the government’s multi-billion-pound Defence Investment Plan, originally due to be published last December, still hasn’t been released.

Earlier this month, Keir Starmer set out his ambition to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by next year in a speech at the Munich Security Conference.

The Unite leader said that, based on her conversations with figures in government, it was clear the Treasury had blocked the defence plan.

“You can’t have a situation where the Treasury is effectively sticking the blockers on anything that is about building Britain and rebuilding Britain,” Graham told Left Foot Forward. 

She added: “I think if she [Rachel Reeves] doesn’t catch on, wake up and smell the coffee and start putting money behind British industry, then I think she does need to go.”

Graham also noted that “This is not the first time that the treasury has blocked investment.”

She accused the Treasury of reducing its vision for Britain to what she described as a “bean-counting” exercise, and said that the government should drop its “self-imposed” fiscal rules to invest in the country, and defence. 

While the defence industry waits for the government’s investment plan to be published, Unite says thousands of jobs are at risk.

At the Leonardo helicopter factory in Yeovil, Somerset, 3,000 jobs could be lost if the Ministry of Defence continues to delay awarding the company a contract. Leonardo is the sole bidder for a £1 billion manufacturing contract. 

Unite is also campaigning for the RAF to replace its old fighter jets with new Typhoons, fitted with Rolls Royce engines, equipped with British-built weapons and assembled at BAE’s sites in Lancashire.

The government will also need to commission new military communications satellites, Graham said, arguing that the question is whether such projects are delivered in the UK or abroad.

Graham told Left Foot Forward: “These are all things that will need to happen. They’re either going to be made here, or somewhere else. If they’re going to be made somewhere else, it strikes me as a policy of ‘we don’t care where things are made’.”

The Unite boss said that if Labour fails to invest in British industry, “Reform will take their clothes where they see an absolute vacuum.”

Graham said that Labour’s job “is to be the voice of workers and communities”.

She urged the government to “do what it says on the tin and stop being embarrassed about being Labour”.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

The post Unite boss slams Rachel Reeves and the Treasury over defence plan delays appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.