PM vows to go green as costs rise
BORIS Johnson said his Government needs to do “everything we can to help people” through the mounting cost of living pressures as energy prices continue to spike.
The Prime Minister promised “colossal” investment in green energy and vowed to use the UK’S fast coronavirus vaccine rollout as motivation to build more wind farms in a bid to produce alternative power forms.
He told the Conservative Party spring conference in Blackpool that Britain needed to protect itself from international energy price rises, which he said were currently being intentionally fuelled by Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine.
Mr Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin was seeking to “weaken the collective will to resist” his attack on Kyiv by “pushing up the cost of living, hitting us at the pumps and in our fuel bills”.
He added: “And so we must respond, and we’ve got to do everything we can to help people with their daily costs, help people with the cost of living.”
The comments come only days before Chancellor Rishi Sunak is due to give his spring statement in the Commons on Wednesday.
The UK Government has already announced a £200 deferment-style system to soften the blow of rising energy bills in 2022/23, while some households will receive a £150 council tax rebate.
But the comments are likely to be read as a hint that more help could be on the way in the spring statement, with households also braced for the impact of the 1.25% increase in national insurance contributions.
Mr Johnson, who said he first spoke at a Blackpool Tory conference 25 years ago as a failed parliamentary candidate, said his impending energy security strategy – due to be published this month – would seek to reverse
“years of short-termism”.