Retailers braced for the effects of the Middle East conflict have urged the Government to cut domestic costs to help them keep prices down for consumers. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said four in five people (80%) feared the Middle East conflict would push up food prices, and called on the Government to help by easing pressure on businesses from higher national insurance, packaging levies, new regulations, and business energy charges. The BRC said retailers were already absorbing “significant” additional costs from the conflict including rising energy and shipping costs, with knock-on effects for fertiliser, manufacturing and logistics. It warned those costs would inevitably filter through to the till over the coming months. But it said the Middle East was only part of the picture, and retailers had absorbed £6.5 billion in extra employment costs from rising national insurance contributions and the national living wage, alongside a new packaging tax costing £1.6 billion.…