Starmer must call energy summit akin to 2008 crisis response, Labour MP says

Former government adviser Polly Billington urges bigger steps to shield people in UK from effects of Iran war Keir Starmer should convene a global energy summit of the same order as Gordon Brown’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and put Britain on a “war footing” to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels, a Labour MP and former government adviser has said. Polly Billington, who was an aide in Brown’s government, warned that economic pain was “hurtling down the tracks” and a bigger response was needed to protect the British people from the consequences of the US-Israeli war on Iran. The MP for East Thanet said the impending energy crisis caused by the war was “as big as the financial crash” and required “a response of equal magnitude”. She said the increase in prices would not be temporary or regional, and that “economic pain, falling living standards and social anger create fertile ground for extremist politics”. While she said the government’s convening of 35 countries to discuss the reopening of the strait of Hormuz was a good step, a bigger global response was needed on energy. “We could be bringing together allies to agree emergency cooperation to stabilise energy markets, p