Starmer chairs new committee to respond to Iran crisis

Sir Keir Starmer will lead a new Cabinet committee to deal with the fallout from the Iran conflict.

The group – the Middle East Response Committee – has its first meeting on Tuesday focused on efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping route vital for global oil and gas supplies.

The Prime Minister established the committee to deal with the domestic and international impacts of the war, which has driven up energy prices, caused stock market turmoil and exposed deep divisions between the US and its traditional European allies.

No 10 insiders compared the new panel to the committees set up under Tory prime ministers to deal with Brexit preparations and the Covid-19 pandemic.

A source said the “new central structure” would focus on “medium-term scenario planning to respond to developments in the region over the coming weeks and months”.

Alongside the ministerial committee – whose full membership has not yet been disclosed – senior officials will meet under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo.

The new structure is seen as an acknowledgement that the situation will continue to have an impact on the UK for some time, but meetings of the emergency Cobra committee will still be held to respond to immediate crises.

The first meeting’s focus on the Strait of Hormuz comes after Donald Trump announced a blockade of Iranian ports, and as the UK and France prepare to host a summit to consider options for securing the shipping route when hostilities cease.

Oil prices retreated back below 100 US dollars a barrel in Tuesday morning trading on hopes US-Iran negotiations may be revived and that an agreement could be reached over the crucial Strait of Hormuz shipping route.

Brent crude edged 1% lower to 98.3 dollars a barrel, having jumped higher on Monday.

Stock markets also moved higher, with the FTSE 100 Index in London up a little – ahead 0.2% at 10598.1 – and the Dax in Germany and France’s Cac 40 both up by around 1% after solid overnight gains in the US and Asia.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said families and businesses across Britain are bearing the cost of instability “they did not cause” as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.

Ms Reeves made her comments ahead of the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings in Washington DC, where she is set to urge coordinated action to tackle the global economic shock caused by the war.

The IMF is due to publish its world economic outlook later, with updated growth and inflation forecasts around the globe.

Ms Reeves said: “Families and businesses across Britain are bearing the cost of instability they did not cause. These are not costs I wanted, but they are costs we will have to respond to.

“The Iran conflict must be a line in the sand on how we deal with global crisis and instability.

“I will go to America with a clear message: global leaders must take co-ordinated economic action and supercharge the path to energy security to protect ourselves in the future.”

Separately, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy met US vice president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio in Washington DC where they discussed the current crisis in the strait.

Mr Lammy is understood to have highlighted the role the UK is playing in the international effort to ensure shipping can pass freely through the maritime chokepoint.

Meanwhile, defending his actions, US president Donald Trump said: “We can’t let a country blackmail or extort the world because that’s what they’re doing.”

Iran has selectively closed off the strait since the US-Israeli bombing campaign began.

Some tankers have been able to pass through, but only with the permission of the Iranians.

Mr Trump’s blockade is aimed at starving Iran of revenue from those vessels.