PRIME MINISTER Keir Starmer is walking an increasingly delicate diplomatic tightrope as tensions in the Middle East threaten to spill into a broader international conflict.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday (Mar 16), Starmer repeatedly declined to be drawn into speculation about military escalation, stressing that any potential effort to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz would not be a NATO operation but rather “an alliance of partners”.

The narrow waterway between Iran and Oman is one of the most important shipping routes in the world, with around a fifth of global oil supplies passing through it.

Recent tensions in the region have raised fears that disruption there could trigger a major international crisis.

But Starmer’s message was clear: Britain will support efforts to keep trade routes open while avoiding being pulled into a full-scale conflict.

When asked directly about comments made by former US President Donald Trump suggesting NATO allies should help reopen the strait, Starmer refused to engage in the escalating rhetoric.

Instead, he emphasised diplomacy and cooperation.

“It’s not straightforward,” the Prime Minister said, adding that discussions with international partners were ongoing.

Observers noted that Starmer also avoided responding to speculation about potential military commitments, a move widely interpreted as an attempt to prevent Britain being boxed into a position before negotiations with allies are complete.

Relations with Washington

Starmer was also pressed by journalists about his relationship with Donald Trump, who has been increasingly critical of some NATO allies.

Asked to rate their relationship on a scale of one to ten, the Prime Minister said simply that it was “a good relationship”.

“We’re strong allies and have been for decades,” he said, adding that his responsibility was always to act “in the best interests of Britain”.

Despite the diplomatic language, the exchange underlined the growing pressure facing the UK government as global tensions rise.

The United States has been urging partners to support efforts to secure key shipping routes, while some European leaders remain cautious about the risks of escalation.

Energy and economic stakes

The stakes are not purely military.

Any disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz could have immediate consequences for global energy markets, pushing up fuel costs and inflation.

That prospect is already weighing heavily on governments across Europe.

At the same press conference, Starmer announced new financial support for households struggling with rising heating costs and outlined plans to strengthen regulation of the heating oil market.

The move was widely seen as preparation for potential energy price shocks linked to instability in the Middle East.

A careful balancing act

For Starmer, the challenge now is balancing Britain’s commitments to international allies with a public that remains wary of overseas military entanglements after conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So far, the Prime Minister appears determined to keep the UK involved diplomatically while resisting pressure to escalate militarily.

Whether that position can hold if tensions in the region worsen remains the key question facing Downing Street.

For now, Starmer’s strategy is clear: support allies, protect global trade routes — but avoid sliding into a wider war.

Committee to examine barriers as figures show nearly one in three Welsh children living in poverty

A NEW parliamentary inquiry will examine the scale and causes of child poverty in Wales, with MPs seeking evidence on how governments in Cardiff and Westminster can better work together to tackle the problem.

The House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee announced the inquiry on Monday (Mar 16), following the publication of the UK Government’s Child Poverty Strategy in December 2025.

MPs say the investigation will explore whether the strategy can deliver meaningful change in Wales, where poverty levels remain among the highest in the UK.

According to the Department for Work and Pensions, around 31% of children in Wales live in relative income poverty after housing costs.

The figure is significantly higher for certain groups, including larger families, lone-parent households, and families where at least one adult or child has a disability.

The inquiry will focus on the barriers that could prevent Wales from achieving the ambitions set out in the UK Government’s strategy, and how both the UK and Welsh governments can coordinate their efforts more effectively.

While many policies affecting child poverty—such as education, housing and healthcare—are devolved to the Welsh Government, the social security system, including Universal Credit, remains largely under the control of Westminster.

Committee members will also examine whether better data collection and sharing could improve understanding of poverty levels and help design more effective policy responses.

Ruth Jones MP, Chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee, said the inquiry would explore whether current plans were sufficient to tackle the issue.

She said: “The announcement of the UK Government’s Child Poverty Strategy was a positive step towards tackling the root causes of child poverty.

“But given the unique history and circumstances of poverty in Wales, the key question is whether the strategy will be able to deliver.

“Poverty in childhood impacts the health and wellbeing of a child throughout their life. With 31% of children in Wales living in relative income poverty, it is vital that the UK Government gets this right.

“That is why our inquiry will investigate not only how effectively the UK and Welsh governments work together, but also what the major barriers are to ending child poverty in Wales.”

The committee is inviting written evidence from organisations, experts and members of the public.

Among the issues MPs want to explore are:

• the main barriers preventing progress in reducing child poverty in Wales
• how effectively the UK and Welsh governments collaborate on the issue
• whether devolved and reserved agencies coordinate their work effectively
• whether children’s voices in Wales are sufficiently heard by policymakers
• how data collection could be improved to better understand poverty levels

Submissions to the inquiry must be received by 5:00pm on Monday, May 4, 2026.

The Welsh Affairs Committee is a cross-party House of Commons select committee responsible for scrutinising the work of the Wales Office and examining UK Government policies that affect Wales.

Government intervention keeps UK’s last primary steelmaking furnaces running

THE UK GOVERNMENT spent £377 million to prevent the closure of the country’s last remaining blast furnaces at British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant, according to a new report.

The emergency intervention came less than a year after the shutdown of the final coal-fired blast furnace at Port Talbot, which ended more than a century of primary steelmaking at the UK’s largest steelworks.

A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) said the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) stepped in quickly in 2025 to keep the Scunthorpe furnaces operating, warning that their closure would have led to thousands of job losses and major disruption to critical UK supply chains.

The £377 million spent between April 2025 and January 2026 has been classified as a loan, but the NAO warned that total costs could exceed £1.5 billion by 2028 if current spending levels continue.

Operating the furnaces is currently costing around £1.3 million a day, the report said, with no fixed budget, repayment schedule or clear end date for the government support.

British Steel’s owner Jingye had been in talks with the Government between 2022 and 2025 about switching the plant to electric arc furnaces, but no agreement was reached.

In March 2025 the company said it was losing around £700,000 a day due to difficult market conditions, tariffs and environmental costs and warned that it was considering closing the blast furnaces.

The Government feared the closure would leave the UK without the ability to produce virgin steel from raw materials — a capability considered strategically important for defence, infrastructure and rail manufacturing.

Electric arc furnaces, which melt scrap steel using electricity rather than iron ore and coal, are seen as the future of the industry because they produce far fewer carbon emissions. However, they cannot fully replace blast furnaces for certain specialist steel products.

The closure of Port Talbot’s blast furnaces last year marked the end of traditional steelmaking in Wales and triggered widespread concern about the long-term future of the UK steel industry.

At its peak, the Port Talbot plant employed thousands of workers and was capable of producing around five million tonnes of steel a year.

Trade unions and industry groups warned that without intervention at Scunthorpe, Britain risked becoming the only G7 nation unable to produce primary steel.

The NAO said the Government’s decision to intervene reflected the “strategic importance” of maintaining domestic steelmaking capacity, but warned that long-term plans for the sector remain uncertain.

Industry figures and unions reacted quickly to the report, warning that the future of UK steel remains uncertain.

Gareth Davies, head of the National Audit Office, said the Government had acted quickly to prevent serious economic damage.

He said the intervention avoided heavy job losses and disruption to major UK infrastructure and construction projects but warned that the high cost of keeping the furnaces running created “significant uncertainty” about how long support could continue.

Trade unions also backed the decision to intervene.

Alasdair McDiarmid of the steelworkers’ union Community said allowing the plant to close would have had devastating consequences.

He said the Government had taken the right decision to act, warning that local economies would have been “decimated” and that Britain would have lost its ability to produce steel from raw materials.

The intervention has also reignited political debate in Wales, where critics have questioned why similar emergency action was not taken sooner to save the blast furnaces at Port Talbot.

The shutdown of the Welsh plant resulted in around 2,800 direct job losses, with thousands more roles across the wider supply chain affected.

Opposition politicians and industry figures have argued that the contrast between the Government’s approach to Scunthorpe and the earlier closure in South Wales highlights the lack of a clear long-term strategy for the UK steel industry.

Ministers say a wider steel strategy is now being developed to balance the transition to greener electric arc furnace technology with the need to maintain domestic steelmaking capacity.