24/03/2026

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Self-directed investing, trading, full service wealth management, automated investing, financial planning, thematic investing, retirement planning, few, and to think. That's just a small taste of what Schwab offers. Because Schwab knows that when it comes to your finances, choice matters. No matter your goals, investing style, life stage or experience, Schwab has everything you need, all in one place, so you can invest your way. Visit Schwab.com to learn more. This podcast is sponsored by Pocket Hose. I gotta tell you, being a homeowner, there's so many things you have to think about all the time. For example, I have to replace my hoses every single year. Because they're weak, they get tangled and there's kinks, then I found the Pocket Hose Ballistic. This is the upgrade I've been looking for for a long time, man. It's reinforced with a liquid crystal polymer used in bullet profess. You know what that means? No kinks, it's not going to get tangled. It also comes with this

1:04Pocket Pivot, which gives you a total freedom of movement. And the spigot has like a 360 degree rotation, which is pretty cool. There's also this upgraded UV coating they added for free, so your hose basically looks brand new all the time. Right now, when you get the new Pocket Hose Ballistic, you'll get a free 360 degree rotating Pocket Pivot and a free thumb drive nozzle. Go to PocketHose.com slash podcast. That's PocketHose.com slash podcast for your two free gifts with purchase. PocketHose.com slash POD, C-A-S-T. Hello there, I'm Alyssa McCarthy and this is today in Parliament from BBC Radio 4 for Tuesday, the 24th of March, where the Chancellor promises help for some if there's an energy bill price hike. So that we can keep costs down for everyone and provide support for those who need it most. But the Conservatives fear her plans will lead to further tax rises on working people.

2:04Where is the control of public spending? Where is the renewed resolve to grasp the welfare bill? Also on this programme, the billionaire owner of Royal Mail faces criticism over the firm's performance. Of course, I'm deeply sorry for any letter that arrives late. I'm deeply sorry if you are not delivering the letters on our promise. But first, the Chancellor has promised to support those who need it most if energy bills spiral due to the war with Iran. Making a statement to MPs, Rachel Reeves also promised new powers for regulators to tackle companies exploiting price rises. The cost of oil has been increasing since the outbreak of the conflict with Iran and its effective blocking of the vital shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz. The Chancellor said the full economic impact of the war was uncertain. But it makes our economic plan even more important, to build prosperity that is secure and resilient, and to bear down on the cost of living

3:06and protect the public finances. Rachel Reeves said later this week she'd meet supermarkets and banks to discuss how they could support customers. And she announced a new anti-profitering framework for the competition and markets authority, which would have powers to tackle companies that were exploiting price rises. Because let me say again, this government will not tolerate any company exploiting this crisis at consumers expense. Rachel Reeves then turned to household energy prices. The cost per unit of gas and electricity is capped and reviewed every three months. The current cap expires in the summer. The Chancellor said she'd learned from the mistakes made by Liz Truss, who she argued had pushed up borrowing interest rates inflation and mortgages with an untargeted support package when energy bills spiked after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A check written then for a bill that is still being paid today. I can confirm to the House that contingency planning is taking place for every eventuality,

4:12so that we can keep costs down for everyone and provide support for those who need it most. But the shadow chancellor, the Conservative Somal Stride, said the UK economy was in tatters. On energy, on the cost of living, on jobs, on growth, on public finances, on every measure that matters, this Chancellor has left us weak, weak, weak. And in the face of this energy shock, there are millions who are about to suffer as a result. Mel Stride said Labour in opposition had backed the last Tory Government's universal support for energy bills and helped Rachel Reeves had already announced would be funded by taxes on workers. But it does not need to be this way. For is not the critical question this? Where is the control of public spending? Where is the renewed resolve to grasp the welfare bill,

5:12to get people off benefits and into work? I will tell you Mr Speaker, it is nowhere. For the Liberal Democrats, Daisy Cooper said families were fearful, and she called on the government to consider a price cap for off grid fuels like heating oil. Will she commit to having energy bills over the next decade by reforming pricing structures? And if bills rise to more than £400 a year as some are warning, will the Chancellor commit to coming back to this house and outlining a broader support package so that all struggling households or many struggling households don't face a crippling hit of that scale? Rachel Reeves reminded MPs that measures she announced in her budget would see energy bills fall next month. And she reckoned it wasn't clear if the Lib Dems wanted universal support for everyone or a more targeted scheme if bills rose later in the year. I would argue that the progressive universal approach that we're taking is the right one, £150 off everyone's energy bills, but then targeted support for those who need it most because we cannot repeat what happened

6:18when Liz Truss was Prime Minister because a check was written then and we are now paying the price with higher interest rates inflation and taxes than we would otherwise have to have. A Conservative former Chancellor Sir Jeremy Hunt said he supported Rachel Reeves' instinct for targeted rather than universal support. Although last time we gave support to households and families, with her support by increasing borrowing, we cannot react to every single economic shock by further increasing our national debt. So will she confirm that when she comes to the house in her budget with targeted support, it will be fully funded and not funded by increasing yet again our national debt? The government has already announced a 53 million pound package to support homes that are off the main energy grid and use heating oil to keep warm. But the SMP's Dave Dugan thought it wasn't enough. 13% of constituents in Angus and Perciut Lens are on oil,

7:185% in Scotland, 2% in England and 0% in Leeds, West and Pudsy. Perhaps that's why she's provided a cut of provides where she's provided 53 million to support oil users where that won't even touch this size. Leeds, West and Pudsy being the Chancellor's constituency, Rachel Reeves defended the heating oil scheme. It took 200 days for the previous government to act on heating oil, it took us under two weeks with 53 million pounds and that money allocated based on the usage of heating oil in different parts of the country. So there will be no help for my constituents in Leeds, West and Pudsy from the 53 million pounds of heating oil because we don't use it. The Green Party's Westminster leader, Ellie Chowns, highlighted a recent finding from the Climate Change Committee or CCC. The fuel price shock that we're seeing highlights, it caused by Trump's reckless war. Highlights just have risk it is for the UK to be locked into these global fossil fuel

8:19markets. And of course the CCC just recently pointed out that the cost of achieving net zero by 2050 is less than the cost of a single fossil fuel price spike, reinforcing the point we need to invest in the clean green technologies and get ourselves off being hooked on fossil fuels. Rachel Reeves told her de-escalation was the best way to reduce bills. Now, the Royal Mail Boss, Daniel Kretinsky, has told MPs that he's deeply sorry for the delays to customers' letters while insisting he's committed to improving the service. While facing questions from the Business and Trade Committee, the Czech billionaire also denied reports that postal workers have been told to prioritise parcels while leaving letters undelivered as Christina Cooper reports. Royal Mail is facing a litany of complaints about its service, especially delays to important letters on hospital appointments, parking, fines and jury service. Dave Ward, the General Secretary of the Communication Workers' Union,

9:19which represents posters, told MPs that staff were demoralised and overworked. It's not unusual for them to come in perhaps after a rest day and see all of the previous days' work there in terms of letters, so they have doubled the amount of work going out the following day. The union's deputy-general secretary, Martin Walsh, told the committee that Royal Mail was struggling to keep staff. It wasn't offering overtime, he said, and postal workers felt aggrieved. It told to leave doctors' letters, hospital letters in the finds to prioritise Czech trapped. Royal Mail was privatised in 2013 and bought last year by EP Holding, owned by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. The Labour MP who chairs the committee, Liam Bern, reckoned he had some explaining to do. Mr Kretinsky, would you like to start by perhaps taking this opportunity to apologise to the country for the declining Royal Mail services? Daniel Kretinsky started his answer by describing himself as a numbers person.

10:22Of course, I'm deeply sorry for any letter that I've slighted. I'm deeply sorry if you are not delivering the letters on our promise, but at the same time, I can't adhere to your sentence that the quality of service is declining because the numbers just don't evidence that at all. Liam Bern was happy to talk numbers, saying that if service levels remain the same, 220 million letters would be delivered late this year. In no world can that be justified as good enough? I absolutely agree with the statement that the quality of service is not where we want it to be, that's very clear. What I've contested as a statement is the statement that it's currently declining. He told MPs that Royal Mail was committed to maintaining first-class post as a universal service obligation, even though it was a hard job. This is a job that nobody else in Europe is doing. This is a job that if you decide to send a letter from Brighton to Scottish Highlands, you'll need to get it delivered next day. We are 180. We are 180. It is not an easy job.

11:25We are not going to need to do this. And you should have known this when you bought the service in the first place. Daniel Kretinsky said that while the service wasn't perfect, it wasn't catastrophic. But the conservative, Asyn Griffiths, said delays could cause acute distress to customers. Do you know how many people have received importantness as late, like medical appointments or penalty notices? It's very difficult, of course, to be precisely analytical because we don't have that detail. And what I want to start with is again a very clear message. We are sorry for any letter that arrived late. He said Royal Mail was committed to improving the service, and he categorically denied that it was prioritising parcels over letters. There wouldn't ever be an instruction, parcels over letters. The committee chair Lee and Bern wasn't convinced. We're just not in a position to believe you Mr Kretinsky on this I'm afraid. And so we will take the evidence again from the whistleblowers that we've got.

12:29We will take the evidence from the CWU. We will put that back to you. But if we need to put you under oath to swear this truth in front of the committee, believe me, I will ask you to do that. Labour's Sarah Edward said Royal Mail hadn't made a profit in the years before Daniel Kretinsky had made the purchase. So she was curious about what attracted him to the loss-making organisation. Mr Kretinsky, I believe you are a billionaire. I've never met a billionaire. I was just wondering, what made you buy Royal Mail? Daniel Kretinsky replied that he was personally committed to giving Royal Mail a successful future. He added that he was driven by the challenge, not by profit, and he insisted that he understood how hard post is worked. I'm not coming from privileged family intellectually, yes, but not economically. I have spent quite a few summers doing very manual jobs. I really know what it means for hard work. And he assured MPs that he would be giving his full attention to terms and conditions for

13:32postal workers at Royal Mail. Kristina Cooper there. The government has suffered a series of defeats in the lords over parts of its English devolution bill. A Liberal Democrat lady Bakewell wanted rural affairs to be added as a responsibility for new strategic authorities, which will have powers over areas such as transport and housing. She argued the countryside areas often got a raw deal. The funding of rural school education is inadequate compared to that received by urban schools. The buses are infrequent. GP surgeries are in large villages. The pub has closed. The local shop shop exists on a life edge. And she said, it is the communities themselves that know gritties that would welcome a lift of time to keep important appointments. The largest strategic authorities are unlikely to have this knowledge at their fingertips, so they will need a strategy to support rural areas.

14:33For the Conservatives, Lady Scott urged the government to accept Lady Bakewell's proposed change to the bill. Accepting the noble Baroness's amendment 5, we believe is the easiest way to achieve the end that everyone seems to be after in this debate, that rural communities needs are acknowledged and they are catered for. And I look forward to the noble Baroness, the Minister's response and her explanation as to why is ruralality not in this bill at all? But for the government, Lady Taylor argued the change wasn't necessary, as strategic authorities would operate across rural and urban areas. The bill is there for intended to equip mayors and strategic authorities with the powers they need to support communities across their entire areas. That is why the areas of competence are deliberately broad. This allows a wide range of activity to fall within scope. In this way, rural issues are already reflected from transport

15:37and local infrastructure, housing and strategic planning and the environment and climate change. But peers disagreed, defeating the government by 285 votes to 156. Warning, the following Zippercruder Radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with F words. When you're hiring, we at Zippercruder know you can feel frustrated. For Lauren even, like your efforts are futile and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people, only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine. Fortunately, Zippercruder figured out how to fix all that. And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com slash zip. With Zippercruder, you can forget your frustrations, because we find the right people for your roles fast, which is our absolute favorite effort. In fact, four out of five employers who post on Zippercruder get a quality candidate within the first day. Fantastic. So whether you need to hire four, 40 or 400 people, get ready to meet first rate talent.

16:42Just go to zippercruder.com slash zip to try Zippercruder for free. Don't forget that zippercruder.com slash zip. Finally, that zippercruder.com slash zip. Puerto Rico is having a moment of global attention. As companies reshore and rethink supply chains, they're choosing a U.S. jurisdiction operating under federal law with competitive tax incentives designed for long term growth, not culture or business, culture and business. Puerto Rico. It's not what's next. It's where. Visit investpr.org forward slash business. You're listening to today's Parliament with me, Alice Yamacafi. Still to come. An MP is moved to tears in a debate on sudden unexplained deaths in children. But before that, back now to energy prices. In the commons, MPs had a range of suggestions about how costs might be cut and the Conservatives stepped up their campaign to persuade the government

17:48to lift the ban on new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea. Here's David Cornock. Labour came to power promising to reduce energy bills. A conservative Wendy Morton remembers it well. The Prime Minister stood on the steps of dining stream. Promise families their energy bills would fall by £300. And yet, since the general election bills have gone up already by £73, they forecast to go up more. She had a question for the energy secretary, Ed Miliband. Can the Minister today explain to me, when will families in my constituency actually see that £300 saving delivered? Good question. Well, families in her constituency will see savings on their bills from next week, thanks to the actions of this government. That's due to a fall in the energy price cap. The maximum price companies can charge per unit of energy between April and June. Ed Miliband said there was more to come. She's wrong on the fact that if you look across 2025, bills are actually lower in real terms than in 2024. And I can tell her that by 2030, which is a

18:48manifesto commitment, we remain absolutely committed to cutting bills, but to £300. But Pippa Haleings for the Lib Dems feared the Iran war would lead to higher bills. She quoted energy analysts. Forecast from Cornwall Insight suggest that energy bills could rise by £332 this July, a £332 Trump war tax on our energy bills. Reform UK's Richard Tyson offered his party solution. The simple thing to do in order to bring down the bills is to scrap net stupid zero, so you can scrap all the carbon taxes, scrap all the green levies, and all our consumers at Households are better off. Ed Miliband's conservative shadow, Claire Coutinho, had some direct advice for ministers. Their first port of call should be to adopt our cheap power plan. It was cut electricity bills by 20 per cent for everybody by cutting green taxes and levies, and it wouldn't cost the taxpayer a penny. Why won't they?

19:52They're their plan is totally incredible, Mr Speaker, and she knows it. He explained why. If she's talking about tax, it is quite extraordinary that her position is now to abolish the windfall tax, which has raised £12 billion since it was introduced in 2022. But the government's approached oil and gas, including its opposition to new exploration licenses in the North Sea, has faced criticism, not just from its political opponents, but also from some unions and even labour MPs like Brian Leishman. I've been clear there should be no ban without the plan, there really must be a plan, because the danger is that oil and gas workers are to become the modern day coal miners. There are thousands of workers nervous in what the future holds, and they are ready to be. The shadow energy minister Andrew Bowie cited another labour MP who'd argued that drilling in the North Sea and scrapping carbon taxes would boost the economy. It is extraordinary. Mad, even no other country on earth would deprive itself of the vast natural resource.

20:57We are lucky enough to have an artist's puzzle underneath the North Sea. The jacked-off field alone could provide £250 million barrels of oil equivalent in natural gas, to the UK, and it could be up and running by Christmas. The jacked-off field is one of two new gas and oil fields that conservatives want to see go ahead. Ed Miliband said more drilling wouldn't cut prices set on international markets. He couldn't comment on a live planning issue. But I will say in general, we will make a decision that is legally watertight. The last government made a series of decisions, which were found, oh no, no, no, they say, well, they don't care about the rule of law. And we saw that, Mr Speaker, when they said we should rush headlong into a war without with no regard for the impacts on our constituents. On that, he could count on the support of the Green Party's Carla Dena. There is simply no case for opening new oil and gas wells in the North Sea. There is no case for proving rose bank and jack door, and there is no case for removing the windfall tax on oil and gas companies.

22:00But the SNP's Graham Ledbyzer warned that jobs and skills were threatened, despite government promises of a fair shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. When the UK government should be protecting energy supply, it is instead sacrificing North Sea jobs and communities on the author of Ideology. Job losses continue month-on-month, and skills losses rife. Just transition are mere ones for the communities that are affected by this. At the end of the debate, a conservative call to end the ban on new oil and gas licenses and scrap the windfall tax was defeated by 297 votes to 108. David Cornock there. Each year around 40 seemingly healthy children die suddenly, with doctors unable to explain the cause of their death even after an autopsy or investigation. In an emotional debate, MPs shared the stories of constituents affected by sudden unexplained death in childhood, also known as SUDC.

23:03Labour's Andy McNay said the devastation it brought was immediate and lifelong. I can only imagine the pain of this when we lost our daughter Mallory to Edward Syndrome. We at least had the comfort of knowing why and what was coming. Grieving families are campaigning for a national plan to research sudden unexplained death in childhood. Andy McNay talked about Frankie Grogon who died at the age of three, and his family members were watching the debate. His family had every reason to believe that they would watch him grow and thrive. Instead, he went to sleep and did not wake up. The night before Frankie was excited that it's either we running the Manchester 10K next day, he briefly woke up at 4.30 a.m. asking for water. A few hours later he was found to be still and unresponsive. Despite a thorough investigation, no cause of death could be identified. A conservative Robbie Moore said he'd never forget his first meeting with Cheryl and Darren Midgley and hearing what happened to their son, Jack. On Christmas Day of 2022, Cheryl and Darren put their loving, happy and healthy 16-month-old son,

24:08Jack, to bed. The family had enjoyed the best Christmas, but when Darren, the father, went into Jack's room the following morning, he quickly realised he'd gone. He said that day their world had fallen apart. A health minister Sharon Hodgson said no family should have to live with unanswered questions about why a child had died. The SUDC remains an under-researched area, and I agree that we must do more to deepen our understanding. And government remains open to funding high-quality research into SUDC. She told MPs that she recognised calls for a national plan, and that pathology waiting times could add to the distress of families. That's why we are strengthening pathology services, ensuring high-quality bereavement support and a growing research base. As this work progresses, we will continue listening to families, clinicians and researchers about where further improvements are needed.

25:11There was an emotional speech from the DUP MP Jim Shannon, who said he wanted every child to have the chance to grow up and families to have the answers they deserved. Thank you. Uplaws there for Jim Shannon from families listening to the debate on sudden unexplained death in childhood. Now MPs have expressed exasperation at social media companies for what they described as complacency about disinformation and harmful content on their platforms. Members of the Science Committee attacked X and TikTok for reacting to damaging material, rather than preventing it. Here's Mandy Baker.

26:12A Labour member of the committee Emily Darlington was worried about how social media was contributing to violence against women and girls. She said researchers had asked X's artificial intelligence tool Groc, the best way to stalk a former partner. If you were a typical rejected X docker, the most common and dangerous type, Groc responded. Here's exactly how you would probably do it in 2025 to 2026 step by step. Do you recognise that Groc is being used, not just to damage children, but to damage women and their safety? We Freido Fernandez is Director of Global Government Affairs at X. I'm happy to take that study back to our team for feedback and see what further garterales have been put in place and be happy to follow up with you in the committee on that. Emily Darlington said Groc should never have given that answer in the first place. The committee chair Labour's Dame Chi on Warra tackled Alistair Law, a public policy director,

27:14a TikTok, over a police report about the exploitation of children on the platform. Sexual abuse offenders have been widely observed using these gifts to reward children who perform specific acts such as hand-standing while wearing a skirt. Look, this is a report that we were made aware of last weekend. I met with the police task force this week and the lead DI on that to gather further information about the evidence that they had, sorry, go on chair. I think our issue is why are you gathering information that the police have found out about what is happening on your platform that you are moderating and responsible for moderating and responsible for protecting children? So she wondered how come children were being rewarded by TikTok system for performing handstands in a skirt? When people go live on TikTok, we apply an additional level of age verification to them. They're required to either give facial estimation, digital ID or real ID,

28:16but what we very much are looking for and welcome is, you know, we speak to the National Crime Agency, we speak to the Home Office and now we're speaking to this police task force, because, sorry, just to finish yet, because they have information from an off-platform perspective that can help us improve our tools even further. The committee seemed frustrated that the tech companies weren't being proactive. Emily Darrington returned to her pursuit of X. She said study suggested users were being pushed towards right-wing content on the platform. She wanted the company to test for political bias. We Frodo Fernandez said anyone could look at how X's algorithm was structured. And it doesn't take into account a particular political inclination. We always welcome feedback and we always welcome research, so I certainly welcome that with respect to, you know, what certain users seeing or, you know, particular studies, again, we're not political in our operation or in our mission.

29:17Emily Darrington dismissed that. I appreciate that this is the party line that you're a politically neutral platform, but that what I'm showing you is evidence that you're not. So if you want to remain a politically neutral platform, you would undertake then to change things and check your algorithmic bias to Tungin or you can also say you're comfortable with where you currently are with the bias that has been evidenced. We Frodo Fernandez questioned some of the research Emily Darrington was quoting. You know, we can debate and we can get into the details on that. Okay, so I think what you're saying is you're not going to make any changes. Well, again, we'll continue to be completely transparent about our technology, what works, and so that we can have a shared understanding. Yeah, I think there's not much more point here. Let's go to the next question. But Chia Moreau wasn't ready to move on. If there was further evidence of political bias, would you undertake the changes that Emily is talking about, or does it not matter how much evidence

30:19amounts up, you are not going to address? We're happy to take the feedback and to understand how folks are experiencing the platform across time, right? And as the algorithm evolves and as we make the changes completely transparent and published that to the public. The answers to that. That long sigh from Emily Darrington summed up the sense of despair that hung over the entire hearing while the tech companies insisted they were driving out disinformation and harmful content. The MPs thought nothing was changing. Mandy Baker, which brings us to our closing headline from Westminster. The Chancellor has promised to support those who need it most if energy bills spiral because of the war with Iran. And she told MPs contingency planning was underway for every eventuality. I'm Alicia McCarthy. The studio manager was Derek Clark. The editor was you and Murray. And that was the today in Parliament podcast. Thanks very much for listening. And you can hear plenty more on BBC Sounds.

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