Iceland boss pleads with No 10 for radical action on cost of living crisis

Managing director of Iceland Foods, Richard Walker, says, ‘if government won’t step in, what is it for?’ Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian

One of Britain’s major retailers has contacted No 10 directly with a plea to prepare an immediate and radical cost of living package, amid warnings that broad help for businesses and direct cash aid will be needed to ease runaway energy costs.

In an interview with the Observer, Richard Walker, the managing director of frozen food retailer Iceland, said he had contacted Downing Street out of concern that the “half-baked response” touted by the potential successors to Boris Johnson would fail to address the scale of people’s needs.