Johnson ‘certain’ next PM will give autumn cost of living help
Boris Johnson has said he is “certain” the next Prime Minister will provide cost of living help this autumn and claimed the UK has “the fiscal firepower and the headroom to continue to look after people”.
Johnson today said during a ceremony in the Downing Street garden that extra help is “absolutely vital” now that energy prices are set to surge again over the next six months.
New estimates from Cornwall Insight today predict the energy price cap will hit £4,200 by January – more than double what it was at the start of this year.
Tory leadership contenders Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have fought over the best way to provide support for families, with the debate centred around direct payments versus tax cuts.
Truss said over the weekend that she preferred autumn tax cuts over “handouts” to help ease spiralling energy costs, while Sunak has said he would provide direct payments to households.
Critics of Truss’ plan have pointed out that millions of low-wage workers and pensioners will not receive any benefit from the planned cut to National Insurance as they do not pay it.
Sunak’s campaign today said that her plan shows she is “divorced from reality”.
He said during the Tory leadership hustings in Darlington that Truss’ solution to spiralling energy bills, cutting National Insurance next month, is “not a policy that’s going to help people get through the winter”.
Truss did not rule out the option of giving direct grants to households, but added that “I don’t support taking money off people in tax and then giving it back to them with handouts – that to me is Gordon Brown economics”.
Johnson said that “whoever” is the next Tory leader and PM that “I’m absolutely certain they will be wanting to make some more announcements in September [or] October about what we’re going to do further to help people in the next period”.
However, he did not specify which method of support that he would pursue.
“I just want you to know that I’m absolutely confident that we will have the fiscal firepower and the headroom to continue to look after people as we’ve done throughout,” he said.