Rishi Sunak headlined a £1,000-a-head bash for Tory donors - the day before telling struggling families it would be "silly" to give them more help with energy bills right now.
The Chancellor brushed off desperate pleas for further cash to cope with with April’s £693-a-year rise.
During an interview with Mumsnet on Wednesday, he said: “It would be silly to do that now or last month or the month before, when we don’t know exactly what the situation in the autumn is going to be.”
But on Tuesday, the Chancellor attended a lavish fundraiser at the InterContinental Hotel on London’s swanky Park Lane.
Mr Sunak was the “guest of honour” at the event, aimed at wooing city fat cats into filling party coffers.
He sneaked into the hotel through a side door, before dining with top Tories including Deputy PM Dominic Raab, policing minister Kit Malthouse, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries and party chairman Oliver Dowden.
I’m A Celeb’s Georgia “Toff” Toffolo was also seen arriving at the bash.
The dinner was organised by Tory treasurer Malik Karim, an investment banker.
He’s said to be keen to make the “City Dinner” it an annual event - with tickets priced at £1,000 a head.
The Conservative Party would be required to declare anyone booking a whole table at the event as a political donation.
But because the threshold for declaring donations is £7,500, anyone buying an individual ticket could keep their names secret.
Earlier, Mr Sunak was cleared of breaking ministerial rules by Lord Geidt, Boris Johnson ’s ethics advisor, over his wife’s non-dom status and his US green card.
On Sunday, the Mirror revealed Mr Sunak was set to pay £13,000 a year to heat his new swimming pool at the Grade II listed manor house he owns in North Yorkshire.
The Chancellor was told by a reader of the website Mumsnet: “Disabled people such as myself are particularly struggling. We have equipment that keeps us alive that we need to have plugged in constantly… it’s costing us more and more money just to stay alive.”
He said disabled people are all facing different “challenges” and can access grants for facilities. But he added: “In terms of things we can do to help - energy bills was mentioned. We’ve talked about the £9bn of support that’s already out there that we’ve put for energy.
“We’ve said we’ll see what happens with the price cap in the Autumn. Now I know people are anxious about this and wondering if they’re going to go up even more.
“I’ve always been clear from the beginning, we’ll see what happens, then depending what happens to bills then of course if we need to act and provide support for people we will.
“But it would be silly to do that now or last month or the month before, when we don’t know exactly what the situation in the autumn is going to be.
“So I’d say just, we’ll see where we are with that, if we need to do more.”
Tulip Siddiq, Labour's Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury said: "How out of touch is this Chancellor?
"Families are already feeling the cost of living crisis, hit by record rises in energy prices, record high petrol prices and staggeringly steep hikes in the cost of food and essentials.
"With the Chancellor heaping them with the biggest tax burden in 70 years on top of that, people are paying more and getting less.
"It's time to act."
