The Chancellor has vehemently denied that the announcement today (May 26) of a series of measures to help ease the cost of living crisis was trying to cover up the Partygate report. Rishi Sunak told Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis said he acted today because there was "more certainty" on how much costs will rise later this year.
The £15bn package unveiled by Mr Sunak earlier included announcements that £400 will be slashed from energy bills later this year when prices are likely to go up while the £200 "buy now, pay later" discount on bills was being scrapped. He also said that people on benefits will get an extra £650, pensioners will receive a £300 and disabled people will get a £150 boost.
But during a Q&A on his social media, Mr Lewis said there was "anger out there" over the timing of the announcement. He said many believed it was acting as a "fig leaf" to cover up Sue Gray's report into Partygate.
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The report looked into several breaches of Covid rules during social events at Downing Street and Whitehall which caused fury around the country when evidence surfaced. A Metropolitan Police investigation led to many high profile figures receiving fines, including Mr Sunak.
However, the Chancellor denied he was trying to cover anything up with his announcement today. He said all he wanted to do was the "absolute best" he could to help the public.
"I can categorically assure you that that had no bearing on the timing for us announcing this support, and I can give you my absolute assurance on that and my word," Mr Sunak said. "The reason we acted today was because we had more certainty about what will happen to energy prices in the autumn.
"I don’t know whether it was you Martin or you were quoting someone but it is not right to say we refused to say we would be providing more help. I actually said precisely the opposite. I said in the spring, I said in February that of course we would look to provide more support if necessary and that we would do that when we had a better sense of what would happen to energy prices.
"That’s the single biggest thing driving the increase in the cost of living and no-one in February could tell me with any certainty what was going to happen with the price cap in October, so I didn’t want to say something that would prove to be wrong. I wanted to wait for enough time so I had a sense of the scale of the problem and then we could size our support appropriately, and that’s what we’ve done."
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