Sunak Faces Tory Clamour To Act Now On Cost Of Living

Tory MPs are piling pressure on Rishi Sunak to take decisive action to deal with the cost of living crisis with measures such as cutting VAT, increasing energy bill support and raising benefits, as inflation is forecast to top 9% today.

- Rowena Mason, Heather Stewart, Alex Lawson

A string of Conservatives from different wings of the party called on the chancellor to intervene within weeks, amid dire economic predictions about the squeeze on households.

One senior Tory, Sir Bernard Jenkin, the chair of the liaison committee that holds Boris Johnson to account, is to warn today that "the economic situation is far worse than the government is prepared to admit”.

He is expected to highlight new figures from the Commons library showing pensioners and the lowest income households face paying £1,000 more a year for food and energy, arguing that any help for them cannot wait until the autumn".

Jenkin will say: "The measures that need to be looked at are £20 uplift in universal credit, transferring the cost of energy green levies to the exchequer, abolishing VAT on domestic fuel, increasing the warm homes scheme, and increasing the pensioners' fuel allowance."

He also backed the idea of cutting VAT overall as the present inflation and tax increases are "sucking demand out of the economy”.

One charity said yesterday that families struggling to cope with energy bills were seeking shelter in McDonald's, with hard-pressed parents and children spending evenings in the restaurants, relying on their fa ities as an emergency kitchen, bathroom and living room.