Truss holds her ground on extra support for households

Liz Truss’s plans for an emergency tax-cutting budget would amount to an ‘electoral suicide note’. This is the latest claim from the Sunak camp – with key supporter Dominic Raab writing a piece for the Times in which he argues that the frontrunner is wrong to prioritise ‘limited tax cuts that do little for the most vulnerable’.

The row over how to best tackle the cost-of-living crisis is quickly becoming the dividing line of the contest. The Sunak camp was quick to seize on the Foreign Secretary’s comments over the weekend to the Financial Times suggesting that she will proceed ‘in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts’. Key Truss supporters – including Penny Mordaunt – then attempted to play down her comments and suggest emergency help is an option that’s still on the table.

Only that option is not a lever Truss plans to pull anytime soon. As consultancy Cornwall Insight predicts that the energy price cap could reach more than £4,200 a year for the first three months of next year, Truss was pressed this lunchtime on whether she would provide extra support on energy bills. The Foreign Secretary repeatedly refused to commit to the idea, saying: ‘What I don’t believe in is taxing people to the highest levels in 70 years and then giving them their own money back.’

It suggests that for all the Truss camp’s attempts to row back, her comments over the weekend were a pretty accurate reflection of her approach. Team Sunak has been quick go on the attack: ‘Liz Truss has doubled down, refusing five times to say she will provide direct support for British families and pensioners this winter.’ The team added: ‘It seems she is divorced from reality, something that even her own supporters, including Sajid Javid, agree with.’

A Truss ally responds to Coffee House: ‘We’re not pre-announcing a budget on a Tuesday in August. It’s just a very strange hill they have walked up and Raab has totally lost the plot. We will always look at what needs to be done and the best way to manage the economy. The way to help people is by having low taxes and high growth, not by taxing people to within an inch of the breadline and then handing it back to them. The ghost of Gordon Brown lives on.’ They added: ‘Rishi’s team has had two and a half years to run the economy and all they have done is bury it six feet under.’

Just as it’s looking all but impossible to bridge the gap between the two sides, it’s also looking increasingly difficult to bring the party together once a new leader is in 10 Downing Street.