Liz Truss will this morning present her plans to tackle rising energy costs for households and businesses by freezing prices.
Yesterday, In her first appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions, Liz Truss was asked to stipulate how she intends to help British households and businesses with fuel bills.
Liz Truss promised that both businesses and households would benefit from her energy price plan. It’s expected that she will freeze the average household’s energy price cap at around £2,500. With a £400 rebate coming in October and possibly a cut in VAT on energy, bills in October for many households may remain roughly the same as in April.
During her first Prime Minister’s Questions, Liz Truss said she was “honored” to take her place as Prime Minister and “ take on responsibility at a vital time for our country.” She said that she was determined to “deliver” for everybody and pledged to “work constructively” across the aisle.
Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer accused the Prime Minister of proposing a scheme asking working people to foot the bill.
Starmer asked Truss to clarify what she said in her leadership campaign that she was against windfall taxes.
“I am against a windfall tax. I believe it is the wrong thing to be putting companies off investing in the United Kingdom just when we need to be growing the economy,” said Truss.
Truss ruled out imposing a windfall tax on the enormous profits of the energy companies to pay for an emergency package. She said that would undermine plans to grow the economy.
A cabinet made up of the Prime Minister’s closest allies
After the first set of appointments, it was clear that the new Cabinet would be made up of the Prime Minister’s loyalists. Truss got rid of supporters of Rishi Sunak.
At the same time, Liz Truss has appointed the most diverse Cabinet in history, with no white person in any of the most senior roles.
Kwasi Kwarteng, who worked in finance before his time in politics, is Chancellor. James Cleverly, an Army Reserve officer and former Education Secretary, is Foreign Secretary. Suella Braverman, a barrister and an outspoken Attorney-General is the new Home Secretary.
The Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, has warned that little can be done to stop the UK from falling into a recession.
