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Inside Westminster

You may be wondering how the energy price cap will affect Liz Truss

Truss’s honeymoon may be shorter than a new PM usually gets, writes Andrew Grice

Friday 26 August 2022 18:47 BST
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<p>Truss has promised vaguely that ‘support is on its way’ </p>

Truss has promised vaguely that ‘support is on its way’

The energy regulator Ofgem’s announcement that the domestic price cap will rise by 80 per cent in October, taking a typical bill to £3,549 a year, puts Liz Truss under intense pressure to say more about how she would help struggling families.

Truss has promised vaguely that “support is on its way”. She has quietly dropped her opposition to “handouts”, which pandered to her immediate audience – Tory members who still like the old, out-of-date tunes about “benefit scroungers” – but played badly in the real world.

If, as everyone in Westminster expects, the foreign secretary becomes prime minister on 6 September, she intends to unveil her package in an emergency Budget within two weeks. Her allies insist it would not be right for Truss to announce her plans before she has been elected or seen all the facts. Strange: her newfound caution has not so far stopped her from announcing tax cuts and other pledges costing up to £50bn during the leadership contest.

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