Yvette Cooper says frontrunner’s remarks are ‘out of touch’ as former health secretary tries to limit impact of remarks
On Keir Starmer’s plan to freeze the energy price cap, Conservative former cabinet minister Sajid Javid said: “I don’t think his numbers added up at all.”
He told Sky News:
When you’re in opposition you’re never going to be held accountable for what you say, so you say what sounds good. I listened to what Keir Starmer had to say yesterday, I don’t think his numbers added up at all.
She’s [Liz Truss] thinking very carefully about the commitments, rightly so and she’s made some solid commitments, but one of those clearly is to have this emergency budget, as I say, will happen within weeks and to take further action.
Nothing has been taken off the table because she recognises as I do and as I think most politicians do, is that this is a very, very serious crisis for families at home. They would have looked at that inflation number today and whilst it might not be a shock because of what the Bank of England said recently, that doesn’t make it any less palpable to anyone. People will be worried and Liz is going to be the right person to deal with this.
I think you don’t have to choose between the two… What she has said with the tax cuts, of course that will benefit everyone, but having a look at if targeted action can be taken, I’m sure that will be considered when it comes to the emergency budget.
It is obviously a very significant concern for those on fixed incomes. And my major concern is how we’re going to support the most vulnerable, particularly pensioners who won’t be able to earn more money.
We need to know what Liz Truss is going to do because what we’ve heard so far is a lot of confusion, frankly, not an inclination to do any more handouts, lots of tax cuts that won’t affect pensioners, but will have a significant effect if they’re unfunded on the economy and inflationary pressures.
