Sir Ed Davey hits out at Rishi Sunak for ‘unfair tax hikes’
The Chancellor of the Exchequer addressed the Commons yesterday as households face the worst cost of living crisis in decades, with annual energy bills set to rise by £693 next month. The government has announced that it will ‘mitigate’ rising costs with a mandatory £200 rebate or ‘loan’ on the energy bill, which will then be paid back next year in £40 increments. However, many don’t even want the loan because it will only add to future payments and are upset that there is no withdrawal option.
Meanwhile, Mr Sunak has come under increasing pressure to cut fuel taxes to help temper rising energy bill prices.
The price of gas has skyrocketed across Europe due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the governments of the Netherlands, Ireland and France have all cut taxes on household energy bills to mitigate the pressure of the cost of living crisis.
At least 50 Tory MPs are said to be pressuring Mr Sunak to do something similar.
The Chancellor has also come under public scrutiny, with some fearing ‘people are dying’ from not being able to heat their homes.
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Mr Sunak has faced widespread criticism from the public as energy bill prices soar (Image: Getty)
Sunak has faced pressure to cut fuel taxes and temper rising energy bill prices (Image: Getty)
Speaking to the Financial Times, National Energy Action’s head of policy, Matthew Copeland, said in February: “By next winter, hundreds or thousands of prepaid customers will not be able to afford access energy for long periods of time.
“People are going to die if they can’t heat their homes to the proper temperatures.”
Prior to the cost of living crisis, Citizens Advice found that 140,000 households a year voluntarily went offline and lived for days without hot water, electricity or heat, hoping to manage their budget.
It is believed that many people will resort to extreme energy rationing to temper the rising cost of living.
Some are afraid that “people will die” from not being able to heat their homes (Image: Getty)
Mirror deputy editor Kevin Maguire has claimed rising energy bill costs could also be ‘political suicide’ for Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his chancellor.
Mr Maguire said: ‘The multi-millionaire Rishi who urges peasants to be grateful exposes his true indifferent Thatcherite ideology as he imposes the heaviest tax burden for 70 years.
“Even this short-term £200 cut on sky-high electricity bills is just a loan that has to be repaid.
“Add rising interest rates and wages far behind soaring inflation and 2022 should see angry workers protesting.
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Mr Johnson wants the public to distract from partygate (Image: Getty)
“If the economy is what Boris Johnson wants us to focus on to get away from Partygate, the Prime Minister will be swept from Downing Street.”
In a furious February column, Mr Maguire added: ‘No one but gullible criminals could believe him now, as he plunges his hand deep into our wallets and purses – decades of strong growth are the only way to fix what Conservative mismanagement has created.
“Sunak and Johnson decide families must pay the price could turn out to be political suicide.”
According to energy bill consultants Aurora Energy Research, UK households spent £36bn on gas consumption in 2021-22.
The rise in the price of the energy bill could be political suicide for MM. Johnson and Sunak (Image: Getty)
They expect this to rise to £74bn in the next financial year, an increase of £38bn.
This means that until April, when the price cap will be lifted, the average household would have paid £1,277 a year for gas.
However, by October the average household is expected to pay over £3,000.
Ramona McCartney, a national organizer for the People’s Assembly, said the rising energy bill has sparked a new kind of anger among the public as some will have to choose between heating or eating.
She told The Big Issue: “I think it’s going to be something we haven’t seen in a very long time.
“It’s like the poll tax protests, that feeling where people are fed up.”
Meanwhile, Paula Peter, a disability rights campaigner with Disable People Against Cuts, said people with disabilities were suffering even before the cuts.
Ms Peters told the Big Issue last month: ‘The cost of living is killing us. Austerity has been killing us for 11 years and it’s being swept under the rug.
“It is a real nightmare in which we have been living for 11 years. The cost of living crisis means we cannot afford food or heat.
“We are barely surviving and there are many who are no longer with us. It’s killing on a double front.
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Source: www.express.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-03-16 07:06:00
