NEW PM TOLD: NO TIME TO LOSE ON CRISIS

AS GAS PRICES SURGE AGAIN AND HELP IS URGED FOR FAMILIES AND FIRMS…

- Nicholas Cecil, David Bond and Rachael Burford

BRITAIN’S incoming Prime Minister was told today that there is “no time to lose” to help millions of families and firms set to be hit with sky-rocketing energy bills.

As the wholesale price of gas soared this morning, London leaders appealed for a major new support package amid “rising panic” over looming “colossal rises”. They warned that the number of people in the capital facing “impossible decisions” about having to choose between eating or heating this winter was increasing to “frightening levels”. Millions of households face their energy bills jumping in October from £1,971 to £3,549, the price cap level, and then spiralling possibly even higher in the winter.

Many firms, particularly small and medium-sized, which are not protected by the domestic energy cap, are also facing stratospheric hikes in bills which are threatening to force some of them out of business. “After a summer of delay, we need an autumn of action to help the UK avoid a winter of discontent,” warned John Dickie, chief executive at BusinessLDN, previously London First.

“The Prime Minister can lose no time in moving to ease the cost-of-living crisis,” he added ahead of the midday announcement of whether Foreign Secretary Liz Truss or ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak had won the Tory leadership contest and was set to become Britain’s 56th Prime Minister tomorrow.