Boris Johnson admits efforts to ease cost of living crisis not enough
Boris Johnson has admitted that the government has not done enough to alleviate the pain of the cost of living crisis, as he struggled to articulate any extra help that a pensioner choosing between heating and eating could access.
The prime minister also rebuffed the prospect of a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, saying the government wanted to encourage energy companies to invest to bring down costs.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Johnson said: “I accept that those contributions from the taxpayer, because that’s what it is – taxpayers’ money – isn’t going to be enough immediately to help cover everybody.”
He added: “There is more that we can do but the crucial thing is to make sure we deal with the prices over the medium and long term.”
Johnson was asked what more 77-year-old pensioner Elsie could do to cut spending and was told she was already cutting down to one meal a day and spending days on buses to keep warm. He said he “didn’t want her to have to cut back on anything” but could not articulate what further help would look like.
“If you put a windfall tax on on the energy companies, what that means is that you discourage them from making the investments that we want to see that will, in the end, keep energy prices lower for everybody. This is going to be something we have to fix.”
His comments came as BP announced $6.2bn (£5bn) profits for the first three months of this year, profits that the TUC called “obscene” at a time of soaring bills.
Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change secretary, said: “The oil and gas firms may be doing their job for the shareholders of their companies but the government is negligently failing to do its job for the people of this country.”
Read more on theguardian.com
