Middle East: Economic Update Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Middle East: Economic Update

Robert Jenrick Excerpts
Tuesday 21st April 2026

(1 day, 7 hours ago)

Commons Chamber
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Rachel Reeves Portrait Rachel Reeves
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My hon. Friend makes a good point. There are a couple of things we are doing today to make it more cost-effective to get an electric vehicle. First, the decoupling of gas and electricity prices will mean that electricity prices will not be set by high gas prices. That reduces the costs of filling up an electric vehicle with electricity. We are also making it easier for people to install electric vehicle charge points, including on their streets and in their homes. We are making solar panels more available, including in high street shops, to enable people to benefit from that cheap electricity, which they can use to power their homes and their cars.

Robert Jenrick Portrait Robert Jenrick (Newark) (Reform)
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Kevin Brewer is a domiciliary care worker from Northern Ireland. He says that he loves his job, but he drives 70 miles every day. He told the BBC this week that for the first time he considered phoning in and saying that he could not do his job. In the end, he decided to put the cost of the fuel on his credit card. Chancellor, people are suffering across the country. I invite her to meet people such as Kevin at the national fuel tax protest on Whitehall on Monday, where motorists, white van men and women, care workers and many others from across the United Kingdom will come together to ask her to take action now to cut VAT on fuel and to say that she will not increase fuel duty in September.