LIZ Truss has promised to “deliver immediate support to ensure people are not facing unaffordable fuel bills.”
The commitment from the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race came as Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi admitted he was "deeply concerned" that people could freeze this winter because they cannot afford to put their heating on.
The vow from the Foreign Secretary in the final hours of the Conservative Party’s protracted and bitter leadership contest is the furthest she has gone on promising to help with the cost of living crisis.
However, she refused to detail what that support might involve.
Writing in the Sun, Ms Truss said she was “ready to put my money where my mouth is by cutting taxes.”
This, she said, would help “stave off the horror of a recession”.
She added: “I will also deliver immediate support to ensure people are not facing unaffordable fuel bills.
"I will be robust in my approach. But it isn’t right to announce my entire plan before I have even won the leadership and got my feet under the table.”
The energy price cap will rise by 80 per cent from October, with the average household’s yearly bill will jumping from £1,971 to £3,549.
There are predictions that the cap could breach £7,000 by April.
Speaking on Sky News, Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi promised that whoever replaces Boris Johnson will “go beyond” the support already committed by the government.
He admitted that the current level of help offered by the government was not enough.
He said his team was looking at options for the next administration.
“There’s nothing off the table” in terms of options the Government is assessing for how to deal with rising energy prices, he said, but he also warned “there are no easy options”.
Asked how concerned he is that people are going to freeze this winter because they cannot afford to put their heating on, Mr Zahawi said: “I’m deeply concerned.
“Those people on pre-paid meters, that’s why I go back and say to you, my preference is targeting the help.”
He was asked if he can guarantee that no one will find themselves in a position where they are cut off because they cannot afford to pay their bills.
He said: “I’m working with the companies to make sure, and NGOs of course, to make sure those people who really are struggling get that help both financially… but the companies themselves have already started to write letters and emails to ask people if they are vulnerable, if they are feeling that they can’t pay, that they should contact their supplier, their companies.
“My pledge to your viewers is that we will deliver the £37 billion – so, that £1,200 to the most vulnerable eight million households, – but we’ll go beyond that because we know we need to, and we need to send a message to Mr Putin that this strategy is not going to work.”
Meanwhile, a new report from the Resolution Foundation warns that real household disposable incomes are on course to fall by 10% over this year and next, and that the number of people living in absolute poverty is set to rise by three million, to 14 million people in 2023-24, unless policy or economic forecasts change.
Lalitha Try, a researcher at the Resolution Foundation, said: “With high inflation likely to stay with us for much of next year, the outlook for living standards is, frankly, terrifying.
“Typical households are on course to see their real incomes fall by £3,000 over the next two years – the biggest squeeze in at least a century – while three million extra people could fall into absolute poverty.
“No responsible government could accept such an outlook, so radical policy action is required to address it.”
Voting in the Tory leadership contest closes at 5pm tomorrow, with a winner announced on Monday.
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