Voters will never ‘forgive’ Tories refusing to act on energy bills crisis, Rishi Sunak warns party

Rishi Sunak has warned Tories that voters will never “forgive” the party if Liz Truss wins power and fails to rescue poorer people from rocketing energy bills.

In a fierce attack on his rival’s plans for the looming crisis, the underdog in the leadership race said the public would not accept a “moral failure” to help the most vulnerable.

Ms Truss has attacked “handouts” while planning tax cuts – but, at hustings in Belfast, Mr Sunak warned they would give £1,700 to a someone on a cabinet minister’s salary, but only £1 a week to the lowest-paid.

“If we don’t directly help those vulnerable groups, those people on the lowest incomes, those people who are pensioners, then it will be a moral failure of the Conservative government,” the former chancellor said.

“I don’t think the British people would ever forgive us for that. And that’s not something that I would ever do as prime minister – because it is the wrong thing to do,”

Earlier, the foreign secretary, stuck to her guns over reversing the National Insurance hike and cancelling corporation tax rises, at a cost of at least £30bn,

“I think we have got to the stage in our economy where taxes are too high and they are potentially choking off growth,” she told Tory members in Northern Ireland.

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