Need to know
Here is everything we know about Starmer’s warning
- Keir Starmer should encourage people to work from home to address energy shortages following the war in Iran, a former Government adviser has suggested. Professor Nick Butler, previously vice-president for strategy and policy at oil giant BP, warned the ‘worst was yet to come’ with soaring fuel prices. He predicted that diesel costs could still rise a “good deal” beyond £2 per litre by May when the ‘real crisis’ and fuel shortage hits the UK and Europe.
- He added that it would be “perfectly sensible” for Starmer and his ministers to instruct workers to remain at home to conserve fuel. Prof Butler’s remarks come as US-Israeli military action in Iran since February has seen oil prices soar to record highs, with costs up more than 60% so far this year as the blockade of the crucial shipping route Strait of Hormuz continues.
- “Some countries, I think particularly in Asia where the crisis has hit earliest, they’re taking an extra day a week at home,” he told Times Radio. “People are being encouraged to work at home. And I think you have to test now whether there’s a willingness.”
- He added: “And as I read the behavioural science, people do respond. They don’t all do it perfectly, but they respond if other people are responding.” When questioned whether the Government should issue guidance to work from home, Prof Butler responded: “Yes, I think that that would be a perfectly sensible measure.”
- Prof Butler, who served as adviser to Gordon Brown during his entire tenure as prime minister, also warned that diesel costs could climb even higher, cautioning that the worst lies ahead.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE: Keir Starmer told to issue work from home order as ‘worst’ of fuel crisis ‘to come’
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