Liz Truss has denied she is ruling out providing extra help with energy bills beyond tax cuts, as the front-runner for the Conservative leadership embarked on what appeared to be the beginnings of a U-turn on the issue.
Ms Truss’s comments, made to reporters in Manchester, brought a scathing response from Rishi Sunak’s campaign, with a source saying her approach would be “laughable were it not so serious”, another sign of the increasing bitterness between the two camps.
A spokesperson for Mr Sunak later went further, accusing Ms Truss of “a major U-turn on the biggest issue currently facing the country”.
[ Liz Truss doubles down on refusal to offer support over rising energy billsOpens in new window ]
“It’s all very well offering empty words about ‘doing all you can’. But there aren’t lots of different ways to act on this. Taking action means providing direct support, which Truss had previously dismissed as ‘handouts’,” the spokesperson said.
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On Tuesday, Mr Truss had appeared to double down on her insistence that she could only offer help through reversing the recent rise to national insurance and temporarily suspending green levies, the latter of which make up about £150 (€178) of the average annual energy bill, which is forecast to exceed £4,200 (€5,000) next year.
But asked in Manchester if she was ruling out any form of grant to help with energy bills, Ms Truss replied: “That’s not what I said.”
She added: “What I said is my priority is making sure we’re not taking money off people and then giving it back to them later on. I believe in people keeping their own money and I believe in a low-tax economy.
“What’s wrong is taking money from people in taxes and then giving back to them in benefits. That’s Gordon Brown-style economics and I don’t support that.”
Ms Truss reiterated her preference for tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit the rich and will not assist pensioners or those without work: “My priority is not taking money from people and then giving it back to them later on. I believe in keeping their own money, and I believe in a low-tax economy. That’s the way we’re going to drive growth.
“I’m not going to announce the contents of a budget in the future at this stage in August, but I can assure people I will do all I can to make sure that energy is affordable and that we get through this winter.”
Referring to Ms Truss’s frequent description of her Leeds upbringing, a source in the Sunak campaign said: “Can the straight-talking Yorkshire woman call a U-turn a U-turn? It would be laughable were it not so serious — millions of people losing sleep at night wondering how they will cope with bills of £4,000. She’s not acting in the national interest.”
In another sign of an apparent shift in emphasis after days of predictions that Ms Truss, as the likely next prime minister, would need to address anxieties about energy bills, one of her key allies said she would look at a full cost of living package once in office.
Simon Clarke, the chief secretary to the British Treasury, said Boris Johnson’s government was “working up a package of cost of living support that the next prime minister can consider when they take office”.
Earlier, the Sunak campaign had called Ms Truss’s economic approach “clear as mud” after James Cleverly, the education secretary and a leading Truss supporter, said she would “look at” other measures to help people with bills, a first sign of the apparent change of tack. — Guardian