Boris Johnson has sparked outrage for a comment he made that suggested buying a new kettle would save on energy bills.
The outgoing Prime Minister made the remarks while on a visit to the Sizewell nuclear plant, in one of his final speeches as PM before handing over the keys to Number 10 to Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss. But Johnson couldn’t quite make it through the trip without once again causing offence.
“If you have an old kettle that takes ages to boil, it may cost you £20 to replace it,” he said at one point during his speech. “But if you get a new one, you’ll save ten pounds a year every year on your electricity bill.”
Johnson was making a case for the advantages of nuclear power during the speech, and used the kettle as an analogy when explaining that funding a new nuclear plant would be a huge expense but would pay off by saving money on fuel bills in the long-term. “If Hinkley Point C [a nuclear power plant in Somerset] were running now, it would be cutting fuel bills by £3bn,” he said.
“So you have to look ahead and you have to beware of the false economy,” he added, before making the kettle comment. However, the comparison understandably did not go down well with viewers given the current cost of living crisis driven by soaring energy bills .
“It’s like suggesting using a thimble to bail out the Titanic after it struck the iceberg,” one person wrote on Twitter.
Another added: “Martin Lewis must be kicking himself that he didn’t come up with the kettle idea.”
“Top tip: don’t waste money on a £20 kettle to save you £10, boil your water on the hot air coming from Boris Johnson instead,” said a third. And one person even set up a fundraiser for £556,000,000 to buy a new kettle for every household in the UK to “solve the cost of living crisis once and for all”.
“Boris Johnson is a genius, and I don’t know why anyone hasn’t already come up with this brainwave,” they wrote. “Once I have the £556m in place, I’ll nip down to Argos (I have a seven-seater, so I should manage it in four or five trips) and buy them all.
“I keep the lot in my shed, and everyone in the UK can pop over my gaff to pick theirs up,” they added. “Alternatively, if this proves to be a bit tricky, I’ll just give all of the money to Trussell Trust food banks instead so it can actually help people during one of the worst winters we’ve ever known.”
Energy regulator Ofgem announced last month that the energy price cap will increase to an eye-watering £3,549 in October, an 80% rise on the current cap of £1,971. Energy consultancy Auxilione predicted that the cap could further lift to a staggering £7,700 from April 2023.
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