Keir Starmer today blasted Boris Johnson and his “overgrown prefect” Jacob Rees-Mogg for “sitting on the fence” over a windfall tax on energy giants.
The Labour leader said the PM is “choosing to let people struggle” while he “dithers” on how to act on the cost-of-living crisis.
And he confronted Mr Johnson with the case of Phoenix Halliwell, who can’t afford to heat his family home or eat while he receives dialysis at home.
The Prime Minister accused Labour of a “lust to raise taxes” - weeks after he helped raise the tax burden to its highest in decades with a National Insurance hike.
As calls grow from leading Tories to cut tax, Mr Johnson promised to offer more support to families later this year.
But he came out swinging to defend oil and gas firms - and despite saying he’d “look at all sensible measures”, refused to commit to a windfall tax now.
Keir Starmer said a U-turn is “inevitable” after the Telegraph reported a windfall tax was edging closer, and “while he dithers” families are billed £53m while firms make £32m in profit.
Labour’s leader said: “Working people across the country can’t afford to wait while he vacillates. It’s time to make his mind up”.
He urged Mr Johnson to “work with us” to put a windfall tax in place for Brits who “simply can’t afford to wait.”
Labour’s leader said: “So many people are living through this nightmare and they feel completely abandoned by their government.
“This week I spoke to Phoenix Halliwell. A rare kidney condition means Phoenix has to do dialysis from home - 10pm to 7am, five days a week, just so he can take his daughter Rosie to school.
“His dialysis is life-saving so he cant turn it off.
“So even though his wife, who’s a midwife in the NHS, works extra shifts, during the winter they had to turn their central heating off and Pheonix skips meals to make ends meet.
“But their energy bill has still doubled.
“He feels like he’s being priced out of existence. And it’s not just him. Millions of our disabled, elderly and vulnerable neighbours are at the sharp end of this crisis.
“They simply can’t afford to live with dignity.”
Mr Johnson asked the Labour leader to send him details of the “sad” case - and stressed the NHS should meet dialysis costs.
But Labour officials hit back that according to Kidney Care UK, while some home dialysis patients get partially reimbursed for electricity bills it does not meet the full cost of the treatment.
Costs also have to be paid up-front and claimed later, and campaigners say the coverage is not uniform across the UK.
Labour’s leader read out a list of business tycoons who support a windfall tax while on the other side is anti-tax Jacob Rees-Mogg - “when he’s not sticking notes on people’s notes like some overgrown prefect”.
On a windfall tax he asked Boris Johnson : “Is he for it, is he against it, or is he sitting on the fence like his Chancellor?”
But the PM deflected, replying: “The right honourable gentleman struggled to define what a woman was, he couldn’t make up his mind on that point, heaven help us.”
He added he was “not in favour of higher taxation” generally and he’d be driven by “growth, investment and employment” - with unemployment its lowest in decades.
Keir Starmer said: "Still pretending the economy is booming, still got his head in the sand in the middle of an economic crisis.
"The Prime Minister keeps saying more help is coming, but we've heard it all before....The Chancellor said wait until the autumn, at least he's honest that the plan is to do nothing.
"But doesn't the Prime Minister realise that working people across the country can't afford to wait while he vacillates, it's time to make his mind up."
Boris Johnson replied: "I'll tell you what's happened in the last month, we've got 300,000 more people off welfare and into work, on our way to work programme and it is because we get people into work that those families, those people are £6,000 a year better off.
He added: "His answer in addition to putting up taxes, his answer is to borrow more, we heard it from the shadow chancellor this morning....it means more pressure on interest rates, it means pressure on mortgages, it means pressure on every family, every man, woman and child in this country.
"That's Labour economy policy, that is why there's never been a Labour government that left office with unemployment lower than when it came in, that's the reality."
