Tories in disarray over energy crisis as Truss urged to spell out plans to help
The Conservatives were in disarray over their response to the energy crisis on Friday, with some Tory MPs backing Liz Truss showing signs of jitters over her refusal to spell out how she would help households.
The frontrunner to be prime minister in just over a week’s time said she would “ensure people get the support needed to get through these tough times” but had no new suggestions about how much or who would get assistance, with the average energy bill set to hit £3,549 from October.
One Conservative MP supporting Truss said they “wanted to see more” and hoped the Ofgem announcement would “sharpen thinking” in her camp, while expressing frustration that her campaign had not relentlessly focused on what to do about energy bills.
Another Tory MP who switched to Truss from another candidate said they felt “disappointed with the lack of focus on what matters to people” and acknowledged they had mostly backed her because she looked likely to win.
A third Truss supporter, Chris Skidmore, wrote an article saying the UK needed to be weaned off gas, despite his favoured candidate backing more North Sea gas and having called overnight for fracking to be exploited in the UK. “Anyone that suggests that our dependence on gas isn’t the problem, or that the solution is more gas, is gaslighting you,” he wrote for PoliticsHome.
After Ofgem’s announcement that the price cap would rise by 80% from October, Truss sent out a statement saying help would be forthcoming but gave no further details and her spokesperson said there would be “nothing more” for the rest of the day.
With little new from the Truss team, Boris Johnson set out his view that his successor would “plainly” have to act without capping prices for the very richest, while Nadhim
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