The UK government should “urgently” strike an agreement with the EU to co-operate on emergency energy supplies in case Russia triggers a severe shortage by cutting off gas exports to the continent, an influential House of Lords committee said on Thursday.

The Lords economic affairs committee warned that there was no concrete accord between Britain and the bloc over managing an energy supply emergency, despite their interdependency in relation to the trade of gas and power via subsea cables and pipelines.

“This is something we need to grip urgently,” committee chair Lord George Bridges told the Financial Times. “What was seen to be very unlikely but a few months ago is now seeming more likely, and therefore we have to have a plan.”