London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Liz Truss’s plans to help lowest earners pay energy bills ‘insulting’, says Labour

Liz Truss’s plans to help lowest earners pay energy bills ‘insulting’, says Labour

Analysis of tax proposals shows a full-time employee on national minimum wage would gain £1 a week
Liz Truss’s “insulting” plans to help people with their energy bills would give the lowest paid just £1 a week when their costs will rise by an estimated £57, Labour has said.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said Truss’s plans were not only uncosted but woefully inadequate, adding that reversing the national insurance rise would give those on the national minimum wage an estimated £1 a week – enough to cover just 3% of the increase in energy bills.

In recent days, Truss has softened on the subject of giving people direct help to cover rising bills but has sounded firmly opposed to so-called “handouts” at other times, saying cutting taxes are the answer. The foreign secretary has also said she would remove “green levies” from bills, which cost on average £3 a week.

Boris Johnson said on Friday the current package giving people £400 as an energy grant, and up to £650 for 8 million of the most vulnerable, was not enough in the face of further rises due in October and again next year.

Amid forecasts that energy bills could hit £5,000 a year by next April, the prime minister made clear that he expected his successor to act.

Asked if the current package was enough, Johnson said: “No, because what I’m saying we’re doing in addition is trying to make sure that by October, by January, there is further support, and what the government will be doing, whoever is the prime minister, is making sure there is extra cash to help people.”

Rishi Sunak, Truss’s rival in the Conservative leadership content, has set out plans for a £10bn support package to help people with their energy bills, saying he would be prepared to borrow to do so.

But new analysis by the Tony Blair Institute said Sunak’s plan to cut VAT on fuel would only amount to a saving of about £14 a month for the typical household.

Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has faced criticism in recent days for failing to present Labour’s policy on energy, with the former prime minister Gordon Brown suggesting temporary nationalisation to get through the crisis. Starmer is expected to set out a fully costed Labour plan for energy on Monday.

Labour’s analysis of Truss’s tax proposals shows that an employee working full-time on the national minimum wage will gain only £1 a week as a result of changes to national insurance. On Friday Reeves said: “Liz Truss’ uncosted tax plan will only give workers on the national minimum wage an insulting £1 of additional support while their weekly energy costs are increasing by £57 a week.

“The minimum wage is already not enough to live on and this further lack of support for working people from the Conservatives risks plunging the lowest paid workers into real financial hardship.

“A Labour government would act now to cut bills by taxing the huge profits made by the oil and gas producers, bringing down energy bills for good with a green energy sprint for homegrown power, and bringing forward a 10-year warm homes plan to cut bills for 19 million families living in cold, draughty homes.”

Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary and one of Truss’s key allies, said on Friday that the cost of bills would be “nowhere near” the levels predicted by independent analysts.

Defending Truss, Coffey said: “She is absolutely an MP who knows what it is like for struggling households and that is why, quite rightly in a considered way, once Ofgem comes up with their price cap … all of government … and it will be a decision for the new prime minister to enact what changes could be made.”

A spokesperson for Sunak’s campaign said on Friday that Truss had “blown a further £5bn black hole in her plans” by not backing the windfall tax. However, the Truss campaign later clarified that she was not scrapping the current windfall tax, despite being against them in principle as a “Labour idea”.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
×