Costs of Last UK Energy Bailout Limit Reeves’ Options

Rachel Reeves has spent time as Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer seeking to win over skeptical bond investors with a message of fiscal discipline. Yet with the clamor for an energy bailout growing louder, that discipline faces its greatest test.

Both Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have indicated they’re ready to step in to help households with higher energy bills, after the price of oil passed $100 a barrel due to the US-Israel war with Iran. But the question for Reeves is whether such support is affordable and how much extra borrowing markets would tolerate.