The Tory leadership race plunged into even deeper warfare today as the Deputy Prime Minister warned Liz Truss ’s plans risk “suicide” at the ballot box.
Dominic Raab, who backs Rishi Sunak, said Ms Truss is only promising "limited" tax cuts via her plan to scrap the national insurance hike.
He argued it’ll "do little" for the most vulnerable as it hands minimum wage workers £59 extra per year, while high earners get three or four figure sums.
By comparison, shock projections today by the firm Cornwall Insight said the energy bills price cap will top £4,200 a year from January to March.
That will mean families have to pay more than triple what they did last winter for electricity and gas.
As Ms Truss and her rival for No10 Rishi Sunak geared up for a hustings in Darlington tonight, Mr Raab said her plan would be “bad politics”.
He wrote in The Times: “If we go to the country in September with an emergency Budget that fails to measure up to the task in hand, voters will not forgive us as they see their living standards eroded and the financial security they cherish disappear before their eyes.
“Such a failure will read unmistakenly to the public like an electoral suicide note.
“And, as sure as night follows day, see our great party cast into the impotent oblivion of opposition.”
Mr Raab warned “the wrong move could prove economically harmful, and politically fatal. A response to the challenges people are facing that stops at limited tax cuts, which do little for the most vulnerable, isn't Conservative politics. It's bad politics.”
Sparks flew as a Truss team source told Politico: “The suicide note here is Rishi’s high taxes and his failed economic policy that he’s peddled for the past two and a half years when he was chancellor.”
Liz Truss supporter Paul Scully complained the race was getting “a little bit OTT”. “I don’t think that sort of language of suicide is helpful in any way,” he told Sky News. “It’s important we remain really positive.”
Ms Truss has said she will focus on tax cuts, not “handouts”, to solve the cost of living crisis.
By contrast Mr Sunak last night said he will give more cost-of-living payments - similar to the £400 already announced off all energy bills - but fund them using a wave of Whitehall cuts.
Ms Truss’ allies have tried to clarify she has not ruled out cost-of-living payments, but have also repeatedly said they’re not her priority.
Boris Johnson has ruled out a standing COBRA meeting, emergency budget or recall of Parliament - saying it is up to the next PM to act.
That will mean paralysis for the next month.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon urged the PM to move a September cost of living meeting forward to this week. And Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said October’s price cap rise should be cancelled entirely - costing £36bn and paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas firms’ profits.
Anti-poverty campaigners urged the Downing Street candidates to focus on easing the economic storm engulfing hard-up households.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s principal policy adviser Katie Schmuecker said: "Every day without a concrete plan to address this glaring gap is increasing anxiety for low-income families who do not know how they will get through the winter.
“The public believe tackling this crisis head on is more of a priority than tinkering with tax policy.”
