Chancellor Rishi Sunak can dodge tackling Britain's cost of living crisis a little longer after Tory MPs voted down plans to trigger an emergency budget.
Conservative MPs rejected a Labour amendment to the Queen's Speech by 312 to 229.
It came as Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey warned of "apocalyptic" food prices in the months ahead and as struggling households faced rising energy bills and towering inflation set to top 10% by the end of the year.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves tore into the government, branding ministers “out of touch” and “out of ideas” in the Commons.
Labour and other opposition parties have been demanding the government take immediate action by backing a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas giants to help people with their fuel bills.
But MPs rejected the levy and moves to force the Chancellor to back an emergency budget.
Ms Reeves told MPs: "We meet today when inflation has hit its highest level for 40 years. Every pound that people had last year can only purchase 91 pence worth of goods today. That’s what inflation of 9% means.
"Our country had a cost-of-living crisis and a growth crisis, prices rising, growth downgraded and no plan for the future.
“None of this though, is inevitable. It is a consequence of Conservative decisions and the direction that they have taken our economy in over the last 12 years.
"This Government is increasingly a rudderless ship heading to the rocks, while it is willing to watch people financially drown in the process.”
She added: “Where is the urgency? Where is the action? Because the time to change course is now. We need an emergency budget to deal with the inadequacy of the Chancellor’s spring statement, with a windfall tax to help get bills down and help families and pensioners weather this storm.
“On the day that inflation has reached a 40-year-high, the Chancellor is missing in action.”
Tory MPs also rejected a Lib Dem amendment calling for immediate tax cuts.
Leader Ed Davey said: “Cutting VAT would put money straight back into people’s pockets, and the Chancellor could do it at the stroke of a pen.
“Rishi Sunak’s refusal to do so while cashing in billions in extra VAT receipts is a betrayal of pensioners and families feeling the pain of soaring prices.
“People won’t forgive this government for refusing to help in their time of need. People won’t forgive the Conservatives for refusing to help in their time of need.”
Responding, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke said: “Far from the dire forecasts about unemployment from 2020 being realised, instead we see unemployment has fallen back to just 3.7%, below pre-pandemic levels and the lowest since 1974.
“That 12 million jobs and incomes were protected during a pandemic, that unemployment is now lower than before the pandemic, that we were the fastest growing economy in the G7 last year, is all thanks to the careful economic stewardship of… the Chancellor and this Conservative Government.”
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford had challenged the PM to back an emergency budget during PMQs earlier in the day.
He said: “Well, Prime Minister, it’s time to stop sniping from the sidelines – if this Chancellor won’t deliver an emergency budget, it’s time for the Prime Minister to sack the Treasury, to sack the Chancellor, and to put somebody else in office that will act.”
Mr Johnson responded: “I want to get back to the crucial point. We’ve been through Covid. We’re facing a spike in global energy prices which has been greatly exacerbated by what (Vladimir) Putin is doing in Ukraine.”
He outlined existing Government support, and added: “But of course, everybody in the country knows that we’re not through this yet, and everybody can see that, and they all know that the Government is going to do more. But they also know the only reason we can do that is because we have a strong economy.”
