Rationing, empty shelves, medicine shortages coming to UK, expert | UK | News
Britain could be weeks away from fuel shortages, rationing and bare supermarket shelves unless the Iran war breaks its grip on Gulf oil shipments, one of the country’s most senior energy experts has warned.
Nick Butler, Gordon Brown’s former energy adviser and a 27-year veteran of BP, told reporters that the near-total halt of tanker movements through the Strait of Hormuz has led to a supply shortage for which governments must urgently prepare.
He said this would amount to “a form of rationing”, adding: “In the short term, we need to look at the supply we have and look at the vital sectors, healthcare, food supply, hospitals – these are the essentials that need to be protected.
“And beyond that, if we come to this situation, it’s up to the Government to decide how we divide up what’s left.”
Prof Butler, now at King’s College London, said: “There have been almost no tankers out of Hormuz for over a week, everything you reported this morning will continue this week…
“And within a few weeks there will be a real supply shortage, a physical shortage. We don’t know how long that will last, but I think the Government here and other governments must now be preparing for a serious supply shortage within the next two months,” he told the BBC.
Working families exposed
Although the government is understood to be preparing a financial support package, internal discussions reported by the Daily Mail suggest it may be limited to people on benefits and pensions; This leaves out millions of working households who are already under pressure from high prices.
Any scheme reportedly takes its shape from the winter fuel payment model, in which a fixed cash sum goes to a specific group of vulnerable recipients each year – in this case around six million people receiving pension credits or benefits.
Pump prices have already moved sharply. Figures released at the weekend show diesel fuel prices have increased by an average of 18p per liter since the conflict began, with drivers paying 160.3p on the forecourt, according to the RAC.
Household energy bills are currently kept in check by Ofgem’s price cap, which has been frozen until the end of June. If the Hormuz blockage continues beyond this point, families could face a huge leap forward when the cap is revisited.
Starmer refuses to escalate tensions
Sir Keir Starmer said Britain “will not be drawn into a wider war” as a result of the conflict but admitted the economic consequences were difficult to predict.
“We’re not ruling anything out, but at this point it’s very difficult to say what the position will be in July, when the current energy cap is up, or what the position will be in September,” he told reporters at the press conference.
The Prime Minister has promised to hold energy companies to account, that they will not be allowed to “make huge profits off the suffering of working people” and that he will ensure that “every penny of the savings we made in last year’s budget” is passed on to consumers.
A new fund of £53 million has been set aside to address the estimated number of homes dependent on heating oil; The price of this fuel has doubled since the start of the conflict, leaving these households particularly vulnerable as it falls outside Ofgem’s limit.
Sir Keir used the moment to renew his push for domestic renewable energy, framing it as the only permanent bulwark against international market volatility.
“There’s no denying it, because we’ve seen it first hand, we’ve seen it in Ukraine, we’ve seen it in the Twelve-Day War, we’re seeing it again now; if you’re in the international oil and gas market, you’re vulnerable to rising prices in the international market,” he said.
“Because we in the UK have very little control over that and of course oil doesn’t give us control over that because we are selling into the market.
“What gives us control is renewable energy, the energy we produce ourselves, which is safer and more independent, so I think we need to move further and faster on renewables.”
