Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak face mounting pressure to explain how they will help households with the spiralling cost of living and the “financial timebomb” due to explode in the autumn. Their economic response to the crisis has emerged as the main battleground in the bid to be the next prime minister, with Ms Truss under fire from Mr Sunak’s allies for suggesting there would be no “handouts” and subsequently playing down the comment.
The row followed the Tory leadership favourite telling the Financial Times she would “look at what more can be done” in the light of warnings from the Bank of England about the longest recession since the financial crisis and inflation soaring to over 13%. But she added: “The way I would do things is in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts”.
Mr Sunak quickly condemned it as “simply wrong to rule out further direct support” for struggling families this winter. Penny Mordaunt, a former Tory leadership contender who has thrown her weight behind Ms Truss, insisted she had been misinterpreted.
