Consumer champion Martin Lewis has invited either Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to join him for a live grilling over energy once they are installed as prime minister.
Addressing the Tory leadership rivals on Twitter, the MoneySavingExpert founder said: “I’d like to formally invite you, as the new PM, to join me asap once you take office for a special hour’s @itvMLshow discussion/Q&A to answer/ease people’s concerns.”
His invitation came ahead of the final leadership hustings at Wembley Arena on Wednesday evening, where Mr Sunak and Ms Truss will face off one last time before votes close on Friday.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson insisted Britain is “not broken” on his final week as prime minister, as he said the last three years has helped to make the country “fit for the future”.
“Which is the country that attracts more venture capital investment now than China? It’s the United Kingdom … Why do people want to come here? Because it is the place to be,” he said.
Timeline of how and when the new prime minister will be announced
The Tory leadership contest is coming to a close, with polls suggesting Liz Truss is the favourite to become prime minister, beating Rishi Sunak.
Here’s a timeline of what happens next as the new prime minister is appointed. Unusual circumstances mean some of the details are different to normal:
What happens next in the Tory leadership contest and when we will know the result?
The process of announcing a new prime minister will be different from previous years
Keir Starmer says he’s ‘not focused on Owen Jones’
Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday he would not join striking rail workers on picket lines, despite union leaders call for more support. Sir Keir said he had a “different” job of getting his party elected.
Asked again if he would join TSSA workers on the picket line, he said: “No. I want a Labour government, I want to be a Labour prime minister. You can’t sit around the Cabinet table resolving issues and then walk onto a picket line, they are different jobs.”
Asked about criticism from commentator Owen Jones – who dubbed him a “professional political conman”, Starmer said: “I know Owen, I like Owen, I’m sorry Owen … I’m not focused on Owen, I’m focused intently on winning the next general election.”
Working from home could add an extra £131 to energy bills
Working from home could add an extra £131 a month to energy bills under the new price cap, consumers have been warned.
Employees have been advised to weigh up the cost of their commute against the soaring price of energy from 1 October – with those paying less than £30 a week for travel possibly better off going in to the office to save money, Uswitch said.
A typical household will run up a £363 monthly bill for gas and electricity under Ofgem’s new price cap for the three months from 1 October.
Larger households with a higher energy consumption are likely to pay £513 a month, rising to £698 for those who are working from home.
New PM to be handed options to speed up key decision-making
Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse said he has asked government departments to produce options for the next administration so that decisions can be made “quickly” to further address the rising cost of living.
After leading a cross-government meeting on preparatory work, Mr Malthouse said: “I’ve tasked departments with identifying the key operational decisions that should be taken without delay across priority risks such as health, energy, cost of living, supply chain disruption, labour market shortages, and industrial action, that have the potential to compound together.
“They will also map out the key moments over the next 18 months where specific groups of society may be significantly impacted, including the clinically vulnerable, socially and economically deprived, the elderly, the young, and the disabled, and produce further options so that decisions can be made quickly once a new administration is in place.”
The Cabinet Office said the government is working to ensure that gas and electricity system operators have the right tools to respond to fluctuations in supply and demand.
It said the Treasury and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will also prepare options for the new administration on possible energy market interventions to lower prices, bring down bills and help manage overall supply.
Queen to receive new prime minister in Scotland for the first time
The Queen will receieve outgoing prime minsiter Boris Johnson at Balmoral rather than London or Windsor in an historic first, Buckingham Palace has announced.
The meeting will be followed by an audience with his successsor as PM on Tuesday 6 September after the announcement of either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak as new Conservative leader.
Emily Atkinson has details of why this decision was made:
Queen to receive new prime minister in Scotland for the first time, Palace confirms
The monarch has faced episodic mobility issues since last autumn
Even people earning £50,000 ‘are going to be struggling,’ says Starmer
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party’s £29 billion plan to freeze energy bills would help all households because even people earning £50,000 “are going to be struggling”.
Defending the decision to offer universal help rather than support targeted only at the poorest households, he said: “If you apply it to everyone, it helps bring inflation down by 4 per cent because energy prices push up inflation.”
He told Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine: “I think if you’re on £50 grand you’re going to really struggle with £4,000 on your energy bills.
“I think there will be many people watching who accept ‘I’m not the hardest-up, I’ve got a decent wage, but £4,000 on my energy bills is more than I can afford’.”
Sir Keir told the programme people are “worried sick” about their bills but “at the same time you’ve got oil and gas companies making huge profits”.
“The Labour Party under my leadership is not going to walk past this and leave people struggling this winter.”
More will need to be done to ease energy bill pain, says housing minister
Housing minister Marcus Jones has said the current package of support to ease the pain of soaring energy bills is “significant”, but conceded “more needs to be done”.
Jones – a backer of Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership – told Sky News: “It’s important the current prime minister is giving the opportunity to the new prime minister too look at the situation and make decision accordingly.
“Absolutely I’m in no doubt that more will need to be done to help people.”
Martin Lewis challenges Sunak and Truss to live debate on energy bills
Consumer champion Martin Lewis has invited Tory leadership hopefuls Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to join him in a Q&A session on ITV once the new prime minister is announced.
Mr Lewis tagged both Sunak and Truss in his tweet, writing: “I’d like to formally invite you, as the new PM, to join me asap once you take office for a special hour’s @itvMLshow discussion/Q&A to answer/ease people’s concerns.”
UK has the ‘financial strength’ to get through cost of living crisis, Boris Johnson says
Boris Johnson has insisted the UK has the “financial strength” to get through the cost of living crisis.
The outgoing prime minister, speaking outside a police station in Lewisham, south-east London, stressed the economic success of the country even amid soaring energy bills and worsening inflation.
He told reporters: “Unemployment at record lows. We’ve got investment coming to this country on the scale we’ve never seen before. We’ve got investments that we’re making in this country that are going to make it fit for the future.
“I’m talking about three new high-speed lines: the biggest rail investment for more than 100 years. Investment in gigabit broadband: giving people access to 21st-century communications. Fantastic progress from 7% coverage when I became prime minister to 70% today.
“Yes, it is absolutely true that because of Putin’s war in Ukraine we have pressures on the cost of living, but we have the financial strength to get through them. And what we’re also doing is making sure that we have the long-term British energy supplies that we need to get our people through.
“You talk about people coming to this country. Actually, that is just a symptom of why this country is one of the most successful on Earth. Of course, people want to come and live here.
“Of course it’s a perennial difficulty to stop people coming here illegally, but we’re taking powers to do that.”
Britain ‘absolutely not’ broken, says Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson said Britain is “absolutely not” broken at the end of his premiership – claiming that “this country has got an incredible future and has everything going for it”.
Asked if the country was “broken” in the final days of his leadership, the prime minister responded: “Absolutely not.”“Look at the place that people want to invest in,” he said.
“Which is the country that attracts more venture capital investment now than China? It’s the United Kingdom … Why do people want to come here? Because it is the place to be.”
He added: “What we’re doing now, and what I’m proud that we’ve done over the last three years or so, is put in a lot of things that will make this country fit for the future.”
