The Chancellor travels to Paris to meet G7 finance ministers and central bankers – the first Chancellor visit to Paris since Brexit.
Close partnership with allies is a key pillar of the action she’s taking to strengthen our economic and energy security in response to the conflict in the Middle East. Reeves will reassert her ambition to ensure the UK is at the heart of Europe, deepening ties and driving practical progress to reduce trade barriers.
She will also press for coordinated action to limit inflation and supply chain pressures and restore freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. And, she will lead discussions on support for Ukraine, reiterating the UK’s backing for Ukraine and its IMF programme.
Reeves will underline the need to maintain pressure on Russia, including on energy revenues, and agree credible, coordinated approaches to Ukraine’s ongoing financing needs with partners. The Chancellor is later this week expected to make further announcements on how the government will deliver a responsible plan to support with the cost of living in response to the war in Iran, which threatens to continue to push up prices for UK households.
Reeves has been pushing Treasury officials to work up a range of options to ease cost of living pressures made worse by the war in Iran, and next week she will set out the next phase of the plan to protect family finances and go further to deliver economic security. Since the war began, the Chancellor has pledged to be responsive to a changing world and act in the national interest, focused on keeping costs down and targeting support where it’s needed, while rejecting knee‑jerk measures that would risk higher inflation and interest rates.
The government has already acted to help ease pressures: extending the 5p cut to fuel duty (twice), freezing prescription charges (two years running) and rail fares (for the first time in 30 years), and taking £150 off energy bills with extra help for those using heating oil; for business, expanding the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme to over 10,000 manufacturers to cut electricity costs from this year.
