Ministers ‘cannot nullify’ impact of rising costs

IT is not possible to “completely nullify” the pressures on energy prices, a Cabinet minister has said, as demonstrators gather across the country over the cost-of-living crisis.

But Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said the Government is “looking... across the board at what we’re doing with the public’s money”, and will “put in the support that we can, as and when we can” to ease the sting of rising prices.

The People’s Assembly said it expected thousands of protesters to take to the streets in dozens of locations throughout the UK yesterday to highlight those suffering “real hardships” due to the combination of a hike in fuel and food costs, inflation and low pay.

Unions have complained that Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spring statement last week did nothing to allay fears about soaring fuel bills and rising inflation. The lifting of the energy price cap on Friday will create an “impossible choice for many”, to eat or heat, said the People’s Assembly.

Former North West Durham MP Laura Pidcock, national secretary of the People’s Assembly, said: “What people are experiencing is intolerable. No matter how patiently we explain that Government inaction over soaring energy and fuel costs and sharply rising food prices is deepening poverty, misery and hunger, it is met with at best indifference and at worst more of the same.”

Labour has repeatedly called for a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, which it says could generate funds to help struggling families and pensioners with energy bills.

Mr Lewis said that such a levy may sound like “an attractive option” but it “won’t necessarily have the impact on global prices that people think it will”.

Meanwhile, the Government is being urged to bring in a “safety net” for struggling families, as the Lib Dems warn people face having to “hand back the keys to their homes” due to a hike in household debt costs.