Liz Truss pledges to set out energy bills support package tomorrow
Liz Truss has said she will set out plans to save households and businesses from financial ruin as a result of soaring energy bills on Thursday.
At her first Prime Minister’s Questions, Ms Truss confirmed her plan, expected to freeze household bills at around £2,500 – some £500 higher than the current cap but £1,000 below the level they are expected to hit in October and many thousands below rises predicted over the next six months.
She rejected the idea of using a windfall tax on the bumper profits made by oil and gas giants to fund the package, reported to cost up to £150 billion.
Ms Truss told the Commons: ‘I understand that people across our country are struggling with the cost of living and they are struggling with their energy bills.
‘That is why I, as Prime Minister, will take immediate action to help people with the cost of their energy bills and I will be making an announcement to this House on that tomorrow and giving people certainty to make sure that they are able to get through this winter and be able to have the energy supplies and be able to afford it.’
In response to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who has pushed for a levy on the £170 billion of ‘excess profits’ that oil and gas producers are expected to enjoy over the coming years, Ms Truss rejected a windfall tax.
She told MPs: ‘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.’
Sir Keir said refusing to tax the profits made by oil and gas firms as a result of the high global prices would leave taxpayers footing the cost of the energy freeze for decades.
He went on: ‘The Prime Minister knows she has now choice but to back an energy price freeze, but it won’t be cheap and the real choice, the political choice is who is going to pay.
‘Is she really telling us that she is going to leave this vast excess profits on the table and make working people foot the bill for decades to come?’
Ms Truss began Prime Minister’s Questions by striking a conciliatory tone, promising to work with MPs across the House to tackle ‘the challenges we face’, at a ‘vital time for our country’.
But her clash with Sir Keir showed clear dividing lines on fiscal policy, with the new Prime Minister determined to scrap planned increases in corporation tax for businesses.
Sir Keir said: ‘Not only is the Prime Minister refusing to extend the windfall tax, she’s also choosing to hand the water companies polluting our beaches a tax cut. She’s choosing to hand the banks a tax cut.
‘Add it all together and companies that are already doing well are getting a £17 billion tax cut while working people pay for the cost-of-living crisis, stroke victims wait an hour for an ambulance and criminals walk the streets with impunity.’
Corporation tax had been due to increase from 19% to 25% in 2023, but Ms Truss said that would deter investors and the UK cannot ‘tax its way to growth’.
Sir Keir said there is ‘nothing new’ about Ms Truss, who ‘nodded through every decision that got us into this mess’.
He added: ‘The Prime Minister claims to be breaking orthodoxy but the reality is she’s reheating George Osborne’s failed corporation tax plans, protecting oil and gas profits and forcing working people to pay the bill.
‘She’s the fourth Tory Prime Minister in six years, the face at the top may change but the story remains the same.
“There’s nothing new about the Tory fantasy of trickle-down economics, nothing new about this Tory Prime Minister who nodded through every decision that got us into this mess and now says how terrible it is, and can’t she see there’s nothing new about a Tory Prime Minister who when asked who pays says “it’s you, the working people of Britain”?’
To cheers, Ms Truss countered: ‘There’s nothing new about a Labour leader who is calling for more tax rises. It’s the same old, same old tax and spend. What I’m about is about reducing taxes, getting our economy growing, getting investment, getting new jobs for people right across the country.
‘I’m afraid (Sir Keir) doesn’t understand aspiration, he doesn’t understand opportunity, he doesn’t understand that people want to keep more of their own money and that is what I will deliver as Prime Minister.
‘I will take immediate action to help people with their energy bills but also secure a long-term energy supply.
‘I will take immediate action to make sure we have lower taxes and we grow the economy, and that way I will ensure we have a positive future for our country and we get Britain moving.’
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