Truss and Sunak still haven’t grasped the magnitude of Britain’s cost of living crisis

Spending power will be sucked out of the economy in autumn as millions of households struggle with soaring energy bills. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Britain is facing a cost of living crisis this winter more brutal than any in living memory. Annual energy bills for the average household are set to hit £300 a month from October, almost double the current level. Spending power will be sucked out of the economy as millions of households struggle – and fail – to make ends meet. The courts will be clogged up with people prosecuted for falling behind with their payments.

That’s the situation facing the two hopefuls slugging it out to be the country’s next prime minister, yet neither Liz Truss nor Rishi Sunak yet seems to have grasped the magnitude of the problem, in public at least.