Boris Johnson has said the next UK prime minister will “plainly” have to give people extra cash for their energy bills but the wealthiest should not see their bills capped.
Johnson put pressure on his successor, who is likely to be Liz Truss, saying the cash handouts are “clearly going to be augmented, increased, by extra cash that the government is plainly going to be announcing in September”.
But he also said overall energy bills should not be subsidised for everyone, as Ofgem announced an increase in the price cap to more than £3,500.
“What I don’t think what we should be doing is capping things for absolutely everybody, the richest households in the country,” Johnson said.
“This will go on for a few months and it will go on over the winter,” the outgoing prime minister admitted.
“And it will be tough – and I’d be very clear about that – but in the end, we are also putting in the measures we need to ensure that we have the energy independence to get through this.”
His comments came as Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor, said Britons should consider cutting down on energy use in light of the huge rise in bills they will face given the new energy price cap.
Zahawi became the first minister to publicly suggest households review how much gas and electricity they use given concerns that the cost of living crisis is expected to deteriorate significantly this winter.
The admission marks a major U-turn from the government’s line only days ago, when a spokesperson for Johnson insisted that questions of energy consumption “remain decisions for individuals”.
Zahawi said on Friday there was “real anxiety among the population” about energy bills but denied that the government was failing to help people.
“We know we need to do more because actually the most vulnerable households have no cushion,” he told reporters.
He assured the public that “more help is on its way” and he was “doing the work to make sure that will be in place throughout next year”.
After an announcement that the energy price cap would increase by 80%, from £1,971 a year to £3,549 for the average dual-fuel tariff, Zahawi said: “The reality is that we should all look at our energy consumption.”
Blaming Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the chancellor added it was “a difficult time” given “there is war on our continent”.
He continued: “Very few people anticipated war. Wars happen in far-flung places. It is now here with us. We have to remain resilient. My responsibility is to deliver that help.”
The government was accused of being “missing in action” by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer.
He said: “You’ve got a prime minister who insisted on staying in office, recognises there’s a problem with energy prices, shrugs his shoulders and does nothing about it.
“You’ve got two leadership candidates who are fighting with each other about how appalling they have been in government, but neither has come up with any plan to deal with this problem. Unforgivable.”
Liz Truss, the frontrunner for the Tory leadership, was criticised by her rival, Rishi Sunak, for economic plans he claimed would only worsen the pain felt by those already living in fuel poverty and others who will be pushed into it.
The former chancellor said pensioners and the most vulnerable would be supported if he became prime minister. “I want them to have certainty that extra help is coming,” he said.
Truss’s plans, which he said amounted to borrowing tens of billions of pounds for unfunded tax cuts, “don’t actually do anything to help the people most in need, risk making inflation worse and put our nation’s finances at risk as well”, Sunak added.
Truss has limited her announcements about support to tax cuts, including reversing the national insurance rise and temporarily suspending green levies on energy bills.
However, her campaign said it would not be right for her to announce further plans before she has been elected prime minister or seen all the facts.
A campaign spokesperson said the price cap increase would “cause grave concern to many people across the UK who will be worried about paying their bills” but that she would “ensure people get the support needed to get through these tough times”.
