Boris Johnson has been left floundering when confronted over the effect of cost of living crisis on people’s lives.
Two days ahead of council elections across the UK the Prime Minister had nowhere to hide when ITV’s Susanna Reid presented him with real life examples of the impact of rising food and fuel prices.
In his first interview on Good Morning Britain in five years a combative Reid told Johnson about Elsie, a 77-year-old widow and programme viewer, who has seen her energy bills rise from £17 a month to £85 a month.
Reid said: “To cut down on spending, Elsie has now resorted to eating one meal a day. She’s 77-years-old. She’s losing weight.
“She gets up early in the morning to use her freedom bus pass to stay on buses all day to avoid using energy at home. What else should Elsie cut back on?”
Johnson said he did not want Elsie to cut back on “anything”, before flannelling about how she was able to spend the day on buses free because of him.
He said: “Just to remind you, the 24-hour freedom bus pass was something I actually introduced.”
An incredulous Reid replied: “So Elsie should be grateful?”
Johnson insisted his government was doing “everything we can” to help with the cost-of-living crisis and said the risk of increasing benefits would be to send inflation higher than the ten per cent forecast for this summer.
The Prime Minister argued that a short-term surge in energy prices is hitting all aspects of the economy including food.
He said: “The cost of chickens is crazy.”
As Labour renewed calls for a windfall tax on energy companies as as BP announced soaring underlying profits Johnson warned that a hit on energy firms would deter investment.
Who's Lorraine?
Johnson defended the £9 billion package of loans to cut energy bills and council tax rebates, but admitted that he could go further with helping out on household costs.
He admitted: “There is more that we can do.
“I accept that those contributions from the taxpayer – because that’s what it is, taxpayers’ money – isn’t going to be enough immediately to cover everybody’s costs.”
Johnson compounded his blunders in his first GMB interview in five years by asking Susanna Reid “Who’s Lorraine?” as the presenter handed over to Lorraine Kelly fore the remainder of the programme.
Reid fired back: “Who’s Lorraine? Lorraine is a legend!”
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