WORKING people must not pay the price for the war of aggression against Iran, TUC leader Paul Nowak warned today.

Speaking after Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled a limited and vague package of support for families hit by higher fuel prices on account of the war, Mr Nowak said: “Working people must not carry the can for the economic damage of Trump’s illegal war.

“While the priority must be to urgently de-escalate the conflict, it is right that the government is planning now for how it can help households and businesses and how they ensure anyone making runaway profits pays their fair share.

“Low-income families will need the greatest protection. But the longer this war goes on, the bigger the threat to our economy and to living standards

“The government must stand ready to pull every lever available to protect the country from a sustained shock,” the TUC general secretary added.

He urged the government to bring together unions, business and government in a Covid-style emergency task force to tackle the crisis.

Ms Reeves told MPs that she was keeping an eye on the situation and will act at some point, but clearly indicated any help would be means-tested and not universal.

Terrified of a Truss-style market meltdown if she committed to blanket support, the Chancellor pledged to stick to her beloved “iron-clad fiscal rules” come what may.

She claimed that Ms Truss’s package in autumn 2022, which precipitated her downfall, had spent too much on supporting wealthy households and that any package eventually produced today would be “targeted.”

Ms Reeves cited Treasury figures indicating that the richest 10 per cent of households got an average £1,350 from that scheme.

Speaking as much to the bond market as the beleaguered public, the Chancellor said “contingency planning is taking place for every eventuality so we can keep costs down for everyone and provide support for those who need it most,” while also maintaining economic “stability.”

Green Party leader Zack Polanski slammed her “unbelievably weak response” to the “enormous bill hikes facing households.”

“Monitoring the situation? Considering new powers? Reeves’s lukewarm words show that she and her government simply do not understand the scale of the cost-of-living crisis about to hit this country.

“We need a guarantee that energy bills will not rise past June, funded by a strengthened windfall tax and higher taxes on extreme wealth,” Mr Polanski said, urging the government to also follow Spain by freezing rents.

Simon Francis of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition demanded to know what the Chancellor’s words meant in practice.

“The immediate priority must be a new alternative fuel support scheme for off-gas-grid households, price protection for heat network customers, action on record levels of energy debt and targeted reductions in unit rates from July for households.

“The Chancellor must also commit to expanding and extending the warm homes discount and reforming cold weather payments before winter,” he said, urging taxation of North Sea profits.

Ms Reeves also pledged to keep an eye on corporate profiteering, telling the Commons that ministers “will not tolerate any company exploiting the crisis,” with new guidance for the Competition and Markets Authority.

Left MP Jon Trickett told her the government should “not follow the failed laissez-faire ideology” of the Tories and “intervene directly to stop outrageous profiteering” by energy corporations.

And Plaid Cymru Commons leader Liz Saville Roberts warned that  “any targeted scheme designed around UK averages risks missing the reality of Welsh households, where incomes are lower, homes are older, and energy efficiency is poorer.”

The economy is already feeling the strain of the war, with manufacturers reporting the biggest jump in cost inflation for more than 30 years as a result of Trump’s aggression, which Ms Reeves continued to insist Britain had no part in.

“This is not a war we started, nor is it a war that we joined” against Tory and Reform advice, she said, urging “de-escalation” of the conflict.