Liz Truss refuses to rule out help with energy bills in apparent U-turn

theguardian.com:

Liz Truss has denied she is ruling out providing extra help with energy bills beyond tax cuts, as the frontrunner for the Conservative leadership embarked on what appeared to be the beginnings of a U-turn on the issue.

Truss’s comments, made to reporters in Manchester, brought a scathing response from Rishi Sunak’s campaign, with a source saying her approach would be “laughable were it not so serious”, another sign of the increasing bitterness between the two camps.

On Tuesday, Truss had appeared to double down on her insistence that she could only offer help via reversing the recent rise to national insurance and temporarily suspending green levies, the latter of which make up about £150 of the average annual energy bill, which is forecast to exceed £4,200 next year.

But asked in Manchester if she was ruling out any form of grant to help with energy bills, Truss replied: “That’s not what I said.”

She added: “What I said is my priority is making sure we’re not taking money off people and then giving it back to them later on. I believe in people keeping their own money and I believe in a low-tax economy.

“What’s wrong is taking money from people in taxes and then giving back to them in benefits. That’s Gordon Brown style economics and I don’t support that.”

Truss reiterated her preference for tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit the rich and will not assist pensioners or those without work: “My priority is not taking money from people and then giving it back to them later on. I believe in keeping their own money, and I believe in a low-tax economy. That’s the way we’re going to drive growth.

“I’m not going to announce the contents of a budget in the future at this stage in August, but I can assure people I will do all I