James Murray says PM has approached Middle East crisis with a ‘cool head’ amid repeated criticism of UK’s position from US president

A bit more now from chief secretary of the Treasury James Murray’s media round from this morning.

Speaking to Sky News, he said it was “early days” in terms of what is happening in the Middle East and that the government is “monitoring very closely” as he faced questions about the effect on oil and gas prices.

I can understand because people have been concerned about the cost of living for a long time, so when people see what they do on the news, they will wonder ‘what does this mean for us?’

What I would say to people is that it’s early days in terms of what’s happening in the Middle East.

We’re all very concerned about what’s happening and, as a government, we’re monitoring very closely, but it is early days, and in terms of how people will experience their energy bills in the immediate future, they will see that reduction come through via the price cap on 1 April.