The frontrunner to be Prime Minister today declared she will give Brits extra cost-of-living help - but won’t tell anyone what it is.
Penny Mordaunt said “we will have to do something else this Autumn” as annual bills look set to top £3,000 a year from October 1.
But despite already announcing billions in tax cuts, she claimed now was not the time to say what she will do - and Brits should wait until a Budget.
That would mean Brits will only know what she is offering after she is made Prime Minister, if she wins a Tory vote, on September 6.
Ms Mordaunt is second behind Rishi Sunak in ongoing ballots of MPs, but polls have suggested she would beat him in a two-way vote of party members.
The Trade Minister told the BBC ’s Sunday Morning programme: “I’ve not set out detailed tax and spend in this contest. That's the wrong place to do it.
“But I'm expecting and anticipating that we will have to do something else this Autumn.
“I have said that we would do some targeted support now, but it's absolutely vital that we do this in a way that is sensible and recognises the very, very volatile situation.”
She added: “We’ve got to demonstrate our competence. This contest is in danger of slipping into something else and I think that we have to run this contest as we would govern.”
Ms Mordaunt claimed not to have announced “detailed tax and spend” despite already suggesting she will raise the income tax thresholds for low and middle earners, and vowing to slash 50% off VAT on fuel.
She also refused to say whether her plans would lead to public spending cuts. “There will need to be some decisions taken at a proper fiscal event this Autumn,” she said.
It comes after rival Liz Truss announced billions of pounds of tax cuts in a hustings on Friday, including reversing corporation tax and National Insurance hikes and pausing green levies on energy bills.
And in a round of TV interviews today, rival Tom Tugendhat spontaneously expanded the HS2 rail line all the way to Scotland in a move that would cost tens of billions.
Mr Tugendhat said: “I would make sure the HS2 tracks went all the way to Scotland."
The current plan is to send HS2 trains to Scotland - but on existing track. New tracks will end in Manchester and the East Midlands, and even then they will only open in the 2040s.
It was unclear if Mr Tugendhat’s comment was a slip of the tongue.
A campaign source played down his comments, saying he would “explore all infrastructure options” for connecting parts of the UK as part of a 10-year plan.
Elsewhere Mr Tugendhat, who is tipped to be knocked out of the race tomorrow, said Boris Johnson ’s Partygate excuses were “rather more fictional than reality”.
Ms Mordaunt refused to say if she'd give Boris Johnson a Cabinet job, though she added: “I don’t think he would be around to serve."
And both Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat both ruled out leaving the European Convention on Human Rights after Liz Truss left the idea on the table.
As the race got increasingly bitter, Ms Mordaunt lashed out at “smears” and “toxic politics” against her.
Ms Mordaunt faces questions over her stance on trans rights after she was accused of hardening her views to appeal to Tory MPs.
A leaked document suggested that, while Equalities Minister, she backed removing at least one element of the medical process for trans people to legally transition.
But Ms Mordaunt claimed she was the victim of smears as allies of right-winger Liz Truss try to keep her off the final ballot.
Knocked-out candidate Suella Braverman said Ms Mordaunt “is woke”.
Backing Liz Truss, Ms Braverman said: “A real priority for me [is] she knows what a woman is.”
Truss supporter Iain Duncan Smith said: “I want to know what does she believe her big achievements are and where was she actually fighting for things.”
Kemi Badenoch supporter Lee Rowley added: “Penny has a set of questions to answer, I don't think she really answered those particularly well in the debate on Friday”.
