Hello, I'm Sean Curran, and this is yesterday in Parliament from BBC Radio 4.

The Chancellor has said a rapid de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East is the best way to avoid rising prices.

On Monday, the 9th of March, Rachel Reeves warned MPs that inflation

was likely to go up and said she was in regular touch with the Governor of the Bank of England.

This time last week, the Chancellor was preparing to deliver the latest economic forecast.

Her statement had the word stability running through it like a stick of rock.

Now there could be trouble ahead.

The economic impact of the situation in the Middle East

will depend, of course, on its severity and its duration.

The movements that we have already seen

are likely to put upward pressure on inflation in the coming months.

Rachel Reeves had come to the Commons fresh from a virtual meeting of finance ministers

from the G7 Group of the World's Riches Nations.

The meeting which considered releasing oil reserves after the price of oil surged yesterday, ended without a decision.

The Conservative shadow Chancellor, Semmel Stride, said people were already worse off

as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.

Her gross mismanagement has left us far more vulnerable than would otherwise have been the case.

Inflation to which she refers was bang on target when we left office.

But thanks to the right honourable ladies' choices,

it rose back up to almost 4% last year, the highest in the G7.

He said Rachel Reeves had missed an opportunity to change course last week

and called on the government to drop plans to increase fuel duty later this year.

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