The Tory candidate for leader Liz Truss,is according to reports this morning will introduce a price freeze cap on energy bills on a scale comparable with Covid measures
“The plan is to introduce some kind of artificial price cap for consumers combined with a mechanism for reimbursing suppliers,” one source told the Times newspaper
“Plans are reasonably well advanced and involve not just civil servants but also ministers lined up for jobs by Truss.”
One senior government figure said the scale of the package being looked at would “at least” be in the region of the £69 billion cost of the furlough scheme and “could be more”. “No one has come up with any option to do it for less,” the source said.
The foreign secretary, 47, is the overwhelming favourite to succeed Boris Johnson and, barring an extraordinary upset, will be named as the winner with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, due to announce the winner at an event in central London.
Steve Reed, Labour’s shadow justice secretary, said this morning that Ms Truss should have already set out in detail how she intends to help struggling families.
He told BBC Breakfast: “It’s extraordinary that one of them will walk into Downing Street today with no idea what they’re going to do to help people. Now Labour’s winning the battle of ideas here, Labour’s come up with a fully-costed plan.
“They could do a lot worse than U-turn on what they’ve said in refusing help to families and look at what we’ve proposed and adopt it, as they have many times this year.”
