LIZ Truss’s camp say that she will not finalise plans to help people with the cost of living until she has received the “full support and advice” available to the government of the day.
The public will likely be forced to wait to find out what help they will get with skyrocketing energy bills until Truss is expected to replace Boris Johnson in Downing Street next week.
The Tory leadership frontrunner has been accused of causing families “unnecessary worry” with her “flip-flopping” on potential measures to deal with the cost of living crisis.
Her campaign, which is under growing pressure to sell out how she will help households this winter, said that meetings offered with Government officials to prepare for a possible transition do not cover all the information needed for Truss to make an informed decision.
A campaign source said: “Liz and her team are working to ensure that they are able to hit the ground running if she is elected prime minister.
“Access meetings with the Cabinet Secretary have been offered to provide limited briefings to help prepare for forming an administration.
“But addressing the cost of living crisis will rightly require the full support and advice that is only available to the government of the day.”
Over the weekend, the Foreign Secretary’s team said she is leaning towards targeted support over help for all, but insisted she is not “ruling anything out”.
It was also reported the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race was considering slashing VAT by 5% across the board.
Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden said: “This flip-flopping by Liz Truss, floating one policy idea after another, is causing the country unnecessary worry about their bills.”
Truss pulled out of an interview with veteran political journalist Nick Robinson which was due to air on the BBC on Tuesday, in which she was expected to have been pressed on her support plan.
Robinson said he was “disappointed and frustrated” by the cancellation as she also faced accusations of dodging scrutiny.
A source from Rishi Sunak’s team said: “Avoiding that scrutiny suggests either Truss doesn’t have a plan at all or the plan she has falls far short of the challenges we face this winter.”
Speaking to The National, Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer said: "This crisis has been fuelled by a cruel and incompetent Tory government that is far more concerned with enriching its pals and protecting its cronies than in serving the public.
"Every day of inaction is another day where more families will fall into debt and go to bed terrified about the future.
"The situation is desperate, yet Liz Truss is showing the same callous indifference as Boris Johnson.
"Things can't go on like this. We can't leave Scotland's fate in the hands of an uncaring Tory government that we did not vote for and can't remove.
"We need radical and urgent action, which Westminster is totally unwilling and incapable of delivering."
The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford has called on the UK Government to match Scotland’s cost of living support.
The Scottish Government has uprated the eight benefits which it has control over. Blackford pointed to the Scottish Child Payment as an example of what should be done south of the Border.
