A leading supporter of Liz Truss has refused nine times to say if the Tory leadership favourite will give "handouts" to people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
Former Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis took to the airwaves to defend the Foreign Secretary after she was accused of U-turning on cash payments.
Truss announced over the weekend there would be no handouts, claiming: "The way I would do things is in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts."
The cost-of-living crisis is set to get worse with inflation currently at 9.4 per cent and expected to peak at 13 per cent. Energy bills are also expected to rise with experts saying the Ofgem cap could be over £4,000 in January.
Fellow Tory leadership contender RIshi Sunak hit back at Truss for ruling out payments to households. Another Truss ally Penny Mordaunt staged a U-turn by saying there are "further things we can do".
Lewis was asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme if those "further things" would include payments to help families get through the tough times.
He said: "She also said we will look to do whatever we can to help people - that's what an emergency budget is about.
"She's (Truss) willing to do more to help people but her focus is around doing it in a way that puts more money in people's pockets, creates a high-growth economy with higher wages, more people in work.
"So rather than having handouts, what we do is have a low-tax economy that's driving growth."
Presenter Nick Robinson asked if an emergency budget would include "handouts", Lewis replied: "The principle behind that will be about ensuring people have more money in their pockets."
Robinson asked the same question, and Lewis said: "She wants to look at what she can do."
He asked again, while Lewis replied: "It is based on a principle of having a low tax economy, which means people are better placed to deal with these challenges."
Asked the question a ninth time, he admitted: "That would be pre-judging a budget we've not had yet."
Recall parliament
It comes as former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford separately called for parliament to be recalled to deal with the crisis.
Brown went further and said Cobra, the government's emergency disaster committee, should be permanently in session in order to find solutions to the problems.
He said: "We've got an energy crisis, we've got an inflation crisis, we're going to have an NHS waiting list crisis. What Cobra meeting - and that's the emergency committee that we hold when things are difficult - has got to do is ensure there's enough energy for the winter, ensure there's enough storage facilities.
"Ensure that we can get a cost of living help to people, because we've only seven weeks to go before October 1.
"You've got to change the Universal Credit computer to enable it to make payments to people, and there's no doubt that people are going to go without food and they're going to go hungry and cold in October if we don't take action now.
"So this is the time to take action, and that's why I'm saying that Government ministers should be meeting with the two leadership candidates so that they can agree a package that could be implemented immediately."
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