Keir Starmer should convene a global energy summit comparable to Gordon Brown’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and put Britain on a “war footing” to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels, Labour MP Polly Billington has said. The MP for East Thanet, a former adviser in Brown’s government, warned that economic pain was “hurtling down the tracks” due to the US-Israeli war on Iran, and that a larger response was needed to protect Britons.
Billington described the impending energy crisis as “as big as the financial crash,” requiring “a response of equal magnitude.” She argued that price increases would not be temporary or regional, and that “economic pain, falling living standards and social anger create fertile ground for extremist politics.” While acknowledging the government’s convening of 35 countries to discuss reopening the Strait of Hormuz, she called for a broader global response to stabilise energy markets, protect supply chains, coordinate strategic reserves, and accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.
Many Labour MPs are privately concerned that the government is underreacting to the domestic impact of the war. At a press conference on Wednesday, Starmer said the government was bearing down on the cost of living and that the Treasury was working on targeted support for energy bills if the war continued. However, some MPs are nervous about electoral consequences of higher petrol prices, energy bills, and inflation threatening the government’s economic plans.
Billington advocated a “war footing” approach, suggesting that plug-in solar panels on balconies and in gardens should become as central to energy security as Anderson shelters were during World War II. She argued that the government “must be bolder” and that no option should be off the table, even those once dismissed as too radical. Another Labour MP said it was not enough for Starmer to list achievements when headlines about the Iran war indicated prices would soon rise.
