Robert Peston

consequences of a negative sort.

So as I say, if the government genuinely believes that there is excess profits, then just tax the excess profits and put the money back into lowering prices.

Now, it comes, of course, against the backdrop where today we actually saw a fall in inflation at a time when everybody's been warning inflation is about to go through the roof.

What did you make of the figures, Steph?

I mean, what happened, as you know, is that the government removed certain essentially green levies from the bills that we all pay.

And that then allowed the benchmark...

the price that we pay to be lower than it would otherwise have been.

And as you say, that is reflected in today's inflation figures.

But the rising price of energy in wholesale markets, the expected rise in food prices, we haven't yet seen what you might call the shock, the genuine shock of Trump's war in Iran.

And that shock...

is undoubtedly coming.

I'm afraid it's like you can sort of see, it's not quite a tsunami, but I'm going to use it as a metaphor.

You can see that big wave on the horizon and you're looking out to sea and it's coming towards you.

And that is, as I say, it's not going to be a tsunami.

It's going to be a

are worrying for many people, rising prices, not as devastating, I think, as Putin's war in Ukraine was to our living standards, but it will be significant.

And one of the ways you can see how worried the government is, because I must say, I regarded this as really quite surprising, some would say really shocking, is you know how worried they are when, as they've done today, they have announced that they are easing sanctions on Russian workers.

oil, which is, I mean, just sort of mind boggling.

I mean, Putin is regarded as the great enemy, but because they are worried that airplanes are going to run out of jet fuel and because they're worried that we're going to run out of diesel, they are now allowing British businesses to buy diesel and jet fuel that has been refined out of Russian oil, which is sort of- Yeah, letting the bullies win.

But it shows you how terrified they are.