The Sky News Business Podcast · Sky News

Markets react to US strikes on Iran

·24 min·1 clip

Lord Harrington says UK manufacturers pay more than twice the energy price of competitors in France and Germany.

1. The Sky News Business Podcast episode centres on markets reacting to US strikes on Iran and the UK government’s first new industrial strategy for eight years. 2. Darren McCaffrey hosts the programme, Greg Clark joins as a former Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy secretary and a member of Labour’s Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, Russ Mould appears as Investment Director at AJ Bell, Lord Richard Harrington speaks as chairman of Make UK, and Rachel Taylor joins from PwC as government and health industry leader. 3. The episode asks whether the UK can build long-term industrial resilience while oil markets and energy costs are being pushed around by Iran, US policy, and global uncertainty. 4. The government says it will invest £2 billion over four years to cut energy prices for businesses through the British industrial competitiveness scheme. 5. Greg Clark says clean energy is one of the strategy’s eight sectors, because advanced manufacturing needs competitive and dependable energy supplies. 6. Clark argues that governments must plan for shocks such as Russia-Ukraine and COVID, because events often come “out of a clear blue sky.” 7. He says a long-term strategy has to withstand “the buffeting of events” and give investors confidence that the policy environment will not “chop and change every few years.” 8. Russ Mould says Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz have pushed oil higher, but he notes that Tehran has made similar threats before and not followed through. 9. Mould says the Strait of Hormuz carries about 20% of the world’s oil, and that two supertankers had already U-turned before entering it. 10. He also points out that the oil price briefly hit a five-month high and then eased back to nearly $78 a barrel, while the FTSE 100 stayed roughly flat. 11. Mould says a worst-case scenario would resemble the 1970s, with two major oil shocks, rampant inflation, and high government debt. 12. He adds that the United States now produces about 13 million barrels a day, which makes it far less reliant on Middle Eastern oil than in earlier crises. 13. Lord Harrington says Make UK wants a 10-year view for investors and praises Jonathan Reynolds for listening to manufacturers on energy costs. 14. Harrington says UK industry has faced power prices above 30 pence per kilowatt hour, while many competitors pay about 14 pence. 15. He says that gap matters for automobiles, aerospace, ceramics, and other manufacturing sectors. 16. Harrington also says the UK can compete on university spin-offs, advanced manufacturing, and financing support from the British Business Bank, but not on low-value commodity production. 17. Rachel Taylor says PwC’s research found that skills and talent were among the top three things businesses want for growth in their sectors and regions. 18. She says raising technical skills to Germany’s level could add £125 billion to UK GVA by 2035, and that construction alone could benefit by about £15 billion. 19. The episode has a straight business-news interview format with quick exchanges, repeated figures, and a strong focus on policy detail. 20. Listeners interested in industrial policy, energy prices, and UK manufacturing will get the most from it; people wanting light market chat may skip it.

As heard by us

Oil, tariffs, and industrial policy drive a brisk business briefing.

The episode opens on markets, with oil, Iran, and US involvement all pressing on the same morning. Darren McCaffrey keeps the attention on what that means for business: the Strait of Hormuz, the risk of disruption, and the way traders read political signals when uncertainty is…

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You want the market read on Iran, oil, tariffs, and the UK's new industrial strategy in one update.

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