Ofgem boss says gas price hike ‘far, far above’ forecasts and millions could be affected by companies going bust – live

Brearley told MPs that Ofgem does try to forecast what will happen to price of gas, but that what was happening now was beyond what was expected. He said:

Brearley told MPs that “well above” hundreds of thousands of customers could see their energy supplier go bust. He said:

UPDATE: This is from Paul Kelso, Sky’s business correspondent.

Jonathan Brearley, the Ofgem CEO, told the business committee that what was happening to gas prices was unlike previous price hikes. He said:

Brearley said this would feed through to customers. And he said many suppliers were under “huge pressure” as a result.

The Commons business committee is taking evidence now from Ofgem, the energy regulator, on the gas price crisis.

Darren Jones (Lab), the chair, started by asking why Boris Johnson felt confident saying yesterday that this crisis would just be temporary.

Jonathan Brearley, the Ofgem CEO, says gas prices are six times what they were last year. They rose 70% in August, he said.

He said many factors contributed to that, including increasing global demand and some restrictions with supply. “So it is very, very hard to predict how long that will last,” he said.

Jones asked again, if that was the case, why Johnson said yesterday the problem would only be temporary.

Brearley said that, in commodity markets, when you see a price spike, “history has suggested that those spikes do go away”.

Sharon Graham, the new Unite leader, has said she will not be attending this year’s Labour conference. Explaining her decision, she told the BBC:

Graham said this was “definitely not a snub” to Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader. She said she had had a meeting with him on Monday that she described as “cordial”. But that was before Starmer announced plans to change the Labour leadership elections rules – plans that Graham criticised yesterday.

Graham also told the BBC that, if there is a vote at conference on David Evans, the party’s general secretary, Unite would vote to remove him. That was because of the way he was implementing redundancies, she said.

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has announced that National Highways have been granted a court injunction against environmental protesters. That means activists who block roads could face jail.

Good morning. Yesterday Joe Biden told Boris Johnson at the White House about his concerns that the UK’s stance on the Northern Ireland protocol could undermine the Good Friday agreement. It is a concern shared by Democrats and Republicans in Washington, and one that has been expressed many times. Johnson told Biden diplomatically that he too wanted to protect the Good Friday agreement. But in an interview this morning George Eustice, the environment secretary, said that Biden was “wrong” about this, and he implied the US president did not understand the issue.

Eustice told Sky News:

Eustice also said it was “very complicated”, adding: “I’m not sure he does fully appreciate all of that”.

Eustice was just saying what cabinet ministers think. But it is unusual for any of them to be so blunt (and patronising) about the US president in public.

As my colleague Rowena Mason reports, in his interviews this morning Eustice also said the bailout of the private US firm that supplies carbon dioxide to the food industry will run into “many millions of pounds”.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, gives evidence to the Commons transport committee.

9.30am: Matthew Roycroft, permanent secretary at the Home Office, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee.

10.30am: Ofgem, Energy UK and National Energy Action give evidence to the Commons business committee about the UK gas market. At 11.30am Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, gives evidence.

12pm: Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, faces Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, at PMQs.

Lunchtime (UK time): Boris Johnson is due to give media interviews in the US.

2pm: Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, his deputy, and Prof Wei Shen Lim, chair of the JCVI’s Covid sub-committee, give evidence to the Commons education committee about vaccinating children.

Later Johnson will be addressing the UN general assembly in New York, but his speech is not expected until about 9pm UK time.

For the latest Covid developments, do read our global live blog.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com