More than 45,000 British nationals have returned to the UK from the Middle East since the start of the crisis in the region, Number 10 said.
Giving an update on evacuation efforts, the prime minister’s spokesman told reporters that on Monday a total of 32 flights carrying 7,400 British nationals returned to the UK from the Middle East.
He added:
Today, Tuesday, 36 flights, are scheduled to land in the UK today, with eight flights I think landing so far.
As of this morning, 173,000 British citizens have registered their presence with the FCDO.
The Guardian’s midlands correspondent, Neha Gohil, was at the Reform press conference in Derbyshire earlier where Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick announced a pledge to reverse Labour’s planned fuel duty increase:
At the forecourt in Newhaven, which has been rebranded under the name ‘Reform, Refuel’ and ‘25p off with Farage’, the party has paid for a cut to petrol prices by 25p a litre for motorists for one day.
Farage and Jenrick criticised “net zero madness” and said the party would fund its plans by getting “rid of lunatic green levies”, naming the boiler upgrade scheme.
Jenrick was challenged on his previous support for net zero policies under previous Conservative governments. He said he was the second Conservative MP to call net zero a “fantasy”.
“It was never going to be achieved, that it was impoverishing our country … It was a huge mistake, and all of us who were involved in that should appreciate it.”
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Migration minister Mike Tapp has said a “crumbling” infrastructure in the UK was behind the government’s plans to increase the standard qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain in the UK from five to 10 years.
Defending the proposal, he told the House of Lords home affairs committee that many of those applying to stay in the country would be looking for social support, something the country could not afford.
“Many of those people are due to settle soon, and that [ILR after five years] would put untold stresses on our, welfare system and, social housing, for example. So by making it retrospective, we take that pressure off of the already buckling system,” he said.
He denied it was motivated by the costs to the exchequer. “It’s not a money saving exercise. It’s looking after the infrastructure of the nation that’s already, crumbling. We’ve inherited a really difficult, situation when it comes to, to housing and welfare,” Tapp told the committee.
He also said they had 200,000 responses to the public consultation which could take “months” to go through.
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Mike Tapp was also pressed about the case of Shamima Begum, the stateless former British citizen who left an east London school at the age of 15 to join ISIS, by Lord Dubs during the House of Lords committee appearance.
Dubs put it to the migration minister that it could be argued that as a child she was trafficked into ISIS and that “surely there must be some way in which we as parliamentarians can engage with that issue of the deprivation of that person’s citizenship.”
Tapp responded:
I maintain my, statement that if you join a terror organisation to harm this country, you shouldn’t be here. Of course there are rights of appeal.
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Migration minister Mike Tapp has admitted he does not know the height of the London Eye, failing a question in the Home Office’s Life in the UK test that citizenship applicants must pass before being naturalised.
But Tapp insisted he wouldn’t fail the test just because he couldn’t answer what he agreed may not be a relevant question for citizenship applications. He was being quizzed at the House of Lords home affairs committee.
“I don’t know the height of the London Eye,” he told them after being repeatedly asked to answer the question from the test.
“So you would fail the test,” he was asked by Lord Bath, the chair of the committee, who wanted to know what was the relevance of knowing this fact in a citizenship test which is designed to help integration.
“I’m confident that I would be able to pass the test. Absolutely. I’m a proud Brit. I’ve served the country,” Tapp said.
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A UK government minister has said she expects police to take “robust action” against those expressing support for the Iranian regime ahead of a pro-Palestinian rally in London this weekend.
Sarah Sackman was speaking in advance of the annual Al Quds Day march in London on Sunday, which is organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC).
The body says that the event has taken place peacefully for the past 40 years and will attempt to highlight the ongoing plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
However, previous events have included participants waving the flag of the Iran-backed Lebanese group, Hezbollah, which is banned in the UK as a terrorist organisation. Rhetoric including chants calling for death to America and Israel have also been highlighted in the past.
The courts minister, Sarah Sackman, told LBC radio on Tuesday:
Those expressing support for the malign regime in Iran and the IRGC and its proxies have no place in our society.
They shouldn’t be on the streets of London calling for hate and hostility against this country. That’s thoroughly anti-British and I expect the police and the home secretary to take the necessary action against those people.
On Times Radio, she said: “I’m clear that hate marches like the Al Quds march has no place in British society and the authorities and the police should take the enforcement action needed against these marches.”
The Metropolitan police has said it has not ruled out a range of options ahead of the march, including seeking the imposition of an outright ban on the rally this weekend.
Reeves says Treasury policies are always 'under review' when asked about planned fuel duty hike
Reeves was asked if she would come back to the Commons at the end of this parliamentary session to say she will review the decision to increase fuel duty this autumn if petrol prices are significantly higher than they are today (due to a prolonged conflict in the Middle East). Reeves responded:
The price today of petrol is 8 pence per litre lower than if I had a followed the plans that were left to me by the previous Conservative government. And from April they will be 11 pence per litre lower.
Of course, we keep these things, under review. But if you look at petrol prices, oil prices today, they are 24% lower than they were yesterday.
So things are very volatile at the moment, which is why, as I said yesterday, the most important thing we can do to address the cost of living challenges people face is to de-escalate the conflict in the Middle East.
You can watch the chancellor responding to questions here:
Reeves recognises 'motoring costs have evolved significantly' and says she is taking action
The chancellor was asked what steps her department is taking to ensure that HMRC approved mileage rates are up to date. Reeves responded:
While the approved mileage allowance payment rates have not changed since 2011, I recognise that motoring costs have evolved significantly, and it’s an important issue for many people who claim motoring expenses.
We are therefore looking at the issue and will consider the matter further in the usual way as part of a future fiscal event.
Through steps like freezing fuel duty, we’re taking wider action in the meantime to ensure people pay the lowest price possible at the pump, whether or not they use the approved mileage allowance payments.
The current 45p a mile rate was put in place in 2011. Former Labour minister Jim McMahon said current costs of running a car worked out at about 67p a mile.
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Rachel Reeves is now answering Treasury questions in the House of Commons. We will bring you the key lines.
Before taking questions from journalists, Nigel Farage pledged to reverse the government’s planned fuel duty hike by scrapping what he described as “lunatic” net zero levies.
Speaking at Newhaven services on Tuesday, he said: “The way we sneakily do tax in this country means there’s about 6p going on a litre of petrol staged over the course of the next few months. And this is just about the last time this should happen.
“How are we going to pay for not increasing taxes? Well, we’re going to get rid of lunatic green levies. In particular, I’m thinking about heat pump subsidies.”
Farage has sought to make hostility to net zero a centrepiece of Reform’s electoral pitch. Last year he claimed the government could save over £40bn a year from abandoning net zero commitments. But the experts he relied on for that calculation subsequently warned that the figure was mainly made up of private-sector investment, which does not contribute towards public spending.
Robert Palmer, deputy director of campaign group Uplift, accused Farage of being a “cheerleader for an oil and gas industry that is making obscene profits at our expense”.
He said:
It’s clear that the only route to lower bills and secure energy is to free ourselves from oil and gas through homegrown renewable energy and upgrading homes, whether that’s with solar panels or heat pumps. This is just common sense in today’s world.
New North Sea drilling will make no difference to UK energy bills and have no meaningful impact on the UK’s supply of gas.
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The Ministry of Defence said earlier that landing ship RFA Lyme Bay is being prepared for potential deployment to the eastern Mediterranean. The vessel has aviation and medical facilities.
Meanwhile, Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon is due to be sent to the eastern Mediterranean to help protect Cyprus and the RAF bases there from further drone or missile attacks.
As my colleague Dan Sabbagh notes in this story, France has already deployed its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier into the eastern Mediterranean and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, met Cyprus’s president, Nikos Christodoulides, and Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on Monday.
Britain has faced criticism from Cyprus about not acting fast enough to protect the country, home to two UK bases.
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Farage: UK can't get directly involved in 'another foreign war'; doesn't 'have a navy'
When pressed to clarify Reform’s position, Farage said:
We cannot get involved directly in another foreign war. We don’t have a navy. We can’t even defend our own military base in Cyprus.
Farage says UK doesn't have 'capability to offer anything of value' to the US or Israel
We can bring you some lines from the Reform press conference (see post at 10.10). Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby asked Nigel Farage about Reform’s inconsistent position over the UK’s policy in regard to the US-Israeli war with Iran. She asks how voters can trust the party’s national security.
“Given that we can’t even send a Royal Naval vessel to defend British sovereign territory and an RAF base, we certainly don’t have the capability to offer anything of any value to the Americans or the Israelis,” Farage said, describing the Royal Navy as a “catastrophe”.
“I think so far the government have had one charter plane, and even that broke down and was 24 hours late,” he added.
Farage said he strongly disagreed with Keir Starmer’s initial refusal to permit the US to use UK bases for its joint offensive with Israel against Iran. He said French President Emmanuel Macron’s “very decisive actions” and intention to help clear the strait of Hormuz shows the “humiliating state that we’ve sunk to today”.
Farage continued: “So there are differing opinions as to whether we should physically join the attacks. I as leader, I’m saying to you, if we can’t even defend Cyprus, let’s not get ourselves involved in another foreign war.”
Reform seems to have been shifting its position on Iran. Farage previously took a harder line than he did this morning, saying the he supported regime change in Iran and said that the RAF and Royal Navy should be deployed to support US strikes on the country. Deputy leader Richard Tice previously said that if Reform were in power “we would be helping the Americans and the Israelis in any way they saw appropriate”. Jenrick, on the other hand, has struck a more cautious tone.
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Thousands of lawyers urge Keir Starmer to rethink plans to cut jury trials
Plans to curtail the number of jury trials in England and Wales have been described as “unpopular, untested and poorly evidenced” by thousands of lawyers who have written to the prime minister.
The letter to Keir Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, from 3,200 lawyers, including 300 senior barristers, comes as his government faces the prospect of one of its most serious backbench revolts since coming to power.
Efforts by David Lammy, the justice secretary, to change the mind of one of the leading Labour figures opposed to the plans, the backbencher Karl Turner, failed after the men met on Monday night.
Turner, who had previously coordinated a letter from 38 Labour MPs urging the prime minister to reverse the plans, said he had “absolutely not” been convinced.
The Conservatives are expected to force a vote to try to block the second reading in parliament on Tuesday. However, the true scale of the Labour rebellion may not yet be evident. You can read the full story here:
The Labour Rural Research Group (made up of over 40 MPs representing “rural” and “semi-rural” constituencies) have a report out today calling on the government to better fund and deliver services for people in rural Britain often neglected in policy formulation in London. It says poverty in the countryside tends to be “undercounted, underfunded and structurally overlooked” and the research group seeks to address these concerns by giving voice to issues affecting rural areas. Here are some of the recommendations in the report:
Rural public transport requires long-term, stable funding, with capped fares covering complete journeys.
Fuel poverty interventions must be targeted at off-grid homes, including extended energy support and social tariffs.
Government should work with the big six supermarkets to introduce a “Rural Basket Delivery Guarantee”, ensuring rural food and retail deserts are covered by delivery services.
The government’s 2026 High Street Strategy must include an explicit rural focus.
In-work support must reflect fluctuating and seasonal incomes common in rural economies.
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UK households that use heating oil face ‘frightening’ surge in bills over Iran war
Rural households that rely on heating oil to warm their homes and provide hot water are facing a “sudden and frightening” surge in their bills, with prices almost trebling since the start of the Iran war.
The cost of heating oil is not covered by Ofgem’s energy price cap and varies between suppliers. In examples seen by the Guardian, customers who were typically paying 62p a litre before the war are now being quoted about £1.73.
The prospect of government help was raised when the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, told parliament she recognised households that used heating oil faced “unique challenges”. She said officials would meet rural and Northern Ireland’s MPs on Wednesday to explore “further action”.
Across the UK, an estimated 1.7m households rely on heating oil, and in Northern Ireland it is the primary heating source for two-thirds of households.
It is typically a form of kerosene so prices are linked to the cost of jet fuel.
As wholesale prices have risen, some customers have had orders cancelled, leaving them to try to rebuy at a higher price. Others have struggled to find suppliers willing to deliver to them. You can read more here:
This policy paper on the changing fuel duty rates says the following:
Alongside other measures announced at Budget 2025 to address the cost of living, this measure continues to support motorists by freezing the current fuel duty rates until the end of August 2026.
Rates will gradually return to March 2022 levels by March 2027, avoiding a 5 ppl increase in March 2026 when the cut was due to expire.
The planned increase in line with inflation for 2026 to 2027 is also being cancelled. This measure will save the average car driver £49 in 2026 to 2027 compared to previous plans.
Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, and his Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick are expected to hold a press conference at a petrol station in Derbyshire shortly and will no doubt be accusing ministers of not doing enough to help motorists.
Writing in The Sun, Farage and Jenrick said:
If Reform were in government, it would never have happened. We will spend the next few months trying to shame Rachel Reeves into cancelling it [the fuel duty rise].
But if she doesn’t – whether because she’s running scared of the Greens or in hock to her far-left backbenchers – then Reform will reverse it in our first budget. Because what she’s doing just isn’t fair.
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You can follow the latest market developments in our business live blog, which is leading on how oil prices are falling and stocks rebounding after Donald Trump said the war would end soon:
The RAC, which represents UK motorists, has said average petrol and diesel prices will likely keep on rising – one of the many examples of how the turmoil in the global energy markets is hitting households already.
The i is reporting that Rachel Reeves could U-turn on the plan to hike fuel duty in September, pointing to a non-committal quote from the prime minister’s spokesperson yesterday. The spokesperson said: “We’re obviously closely monitoring prices in light of the situation in the Middle East. I know there’s been reporting around fuel duty. The chancellor keeps all taxes under review and takes decisions at the budget.”
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Rachel Reeves faces growing calls to cancel planned increase in fuel duty
As we mentioned in the opening post, Rachel Reeves is under pressure to cancel the planned increase in fuel duty due in September which will cause drivers to pay more for petrol and diesel as the government rolls back a temporary cut that was introduced in 2022 in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
At her budget last year, Reeves said the 5p cut would be unwound between September 2026 and March 2027, but the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have called for her to change course in light of the Israeli-US war with Iran. The Tories have promised to bring a vote on reversing the planned increase.
The Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, said:
Rachel Reeves is planning to hike Fuel Duty for the first time in 15 years at the worst possible moment. Last week at the Spring Statement she knew full well that global instability was pushing oil prices up again.
Instead of helping families and businesses, she chose to pat herself on the back. Now motorists across the country face the double hit of rising petrol prices and higher fuel tax. This is Labour’s instinct: higher taxes and the wrong priorities. Labour must axe the Fuel Tax rise!
The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, went further, saying the prime minister should convene the government’s emergency Cobra committee “to personally get a grip on the threat of brutal price shocks facing families, pensioners and businesses”.
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Ministers under pressure to bring in cost-of-living support package amid inflation fears
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the prime minister, Keir Starmer, indicated yesterday that the government could be prepared to intervene to protect UK households against major cost-of-living shocks to come at the next energy price cap, as Brent crude, the international benchmark, surged as high as $119.50 a barrel on Monday.
Brent then slid back to about $91 when Donald Trump described the US-Israeli war on Iran as “very complete, pretty much” in an interview with CBS News yesterday evening.
His contradictory statements on the timeline for the duration of the war have added to market turbulence, with fears of a prolonged conflict causing governments to consider support packages to protect people from higher prices caused by a predicted surge in inflation.
The British Chambers of Commerce forecast that inflation would remain “firmly above” the Bank of England’s 2% target, noting the “highly uncertain” global situation.
Following a call with her G7 counterparts on Monday, Reeves said she was ready to support “a coordinated release” of international oil reserves to ease the economic shock of the escalating crisis.
She also called for action to “guarantee the security of vessels” passing through the strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping routes. The war has severely reduced sea traffic through the strait which carries about one-fifth of global seaborne crude oil.
Starmer said a prolonged conflict would affect the “lives and households of everybody” but vowed that ministers would seek to “get ahead” in case of that event.
Reeves is due in the Commons for Treasury questions at 11.30am as she faces calls to ditch a planned 5p rise in fuel duty in September and set out an emergency package to shield households from global energy price rises and inflationary pressures.
