Cost of living news – live: NHS staff vote on winter strike over ‘massive pay cut’

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries has been accused of being part of “terrorist campaign” to discredit the inquiry into whether Boris Johnson misled parliament on Partygate.

Senior Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin – who sits on the committee set to probe the PM this autumn – lashed out when asked about Ms Dorries claims of a “witch hunt”.

Asked about the PM’s allies’ repeated attacks on the inquiry, Sir Bernard told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “If anybody is unhappy with that they should write to the committee with their arguments and we will be compelled to consider to them.”

Politics writer Adam Forrest has more:

Conservative MP and chairman of the Liaison Committee Sir Bernard Jenkin has compared the energy price increases to a “second crisis” after Covid.

He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme: “Liz (Truss) is completely right that tax cuts in the longer term are very important and I very much look forward to those tax cuts being implemented, but Rishi (Sunak) is also right that there will have to be further support for – particularly – the lower-income households.

“These huge energy increases, cost increases that are being imposed on us by the war in Ukraine, are going to lead to falling living standards.

“We cannot shield people from falling living standards under these circumstances, we cannot shield people from all the effects of this, but obviously we’ve got to make sure that pensioners don’t have to switch off their heating, that disabled people don’t have to switch off their heating and the lowest-income families don’t actually run out of cash and start running up overdrafts and defaulting on their debts.

“This is a very serious situation … and these decisions are going to have to be made in the context of the economy as a whole, but this is like Covid, a second crisis. We are effectively at war in Europe and this is imposing enormous extra costs on the economy and on households. There’s no avoiding the need for us to take some action.”

Sir Bernard said he wanted to see VAT on domestic fuel abolished and a reintroduction of the £20 uplift on Universal Credit.

A ballot of around 100,000 NHS members of the Unite union is under way over possible strike action this winter in protest at a below-inflation pay offer.

Voting by Unite members in England and Wales began as the Royal College of Nursing announced almost half a million members will also take part in a separate strike ballot next month.

Both unions are recommending their members support industrial action, which could begin in October and throw the health service into crisis over the winter, writes Andrew Woodcock.

The prime minister’s plans to slash 91,000 civil service jobs has faced fresh criticism following a comprehensive review by Downing Street’s former chief-of-staff.

In proposals outlined in May, Boris Johnson insisted that a reduction of civil servants by 20 per cent would allow government to use the money better elsewhere, adding this could be achieved without harming major frontline services.

However, the Treasury’s confidence in the proposal has reportedly been diminished after a Whitehall review led by Steve Barclay.

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Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss today refused to offer immediate help with rocketing energy bills, amid mounting clamour for an emergency budget.

Asked repeatedly in a TV interview whether she was ruling out direct payments to households worst-hit by inflation, the foreign secretary did not deny the claim, instead saying that she wanted to focus on tax cuts.

And she indicated she will resist calls from former prime minister Gordon Brown and the CBI for her to get together with leadership rival Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson to agree an immediate package of help, saying that she would not “write the budget in advance”.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has more:

Conservative leadership rivals Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak should get together to agree on the outline of a plan to help Britons with soaring energy bills, said the head of the UK’s leading business organisation.

Tony Danker, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said waiting until Boris Johnson’s successor is announced on 5 September would be too late to put measures in place before October’s “terrifying” price rises.

Truss or Sunak would “need to tell us what will happen” when entering No 10 on 5 September, said Danker, “not put it off for a couple of weeks while they do preparations for the emergency budget”.

Politics writer Adam Forrest has more:

Energy bills for the average UK household are on course to surge to a devastating £4,266 a year in January, experts have warned.

That will come after a rise to more than £3,500 in October as the cost-of-living crisis deepens throughout this year and into 2023, according to figures from Cornwall Insight, an energy consultancy.

Ofgem is set to put the price cap at £4,266 for the average household in the three months from the beginning of January.

Ben Chapman has more here:

Martin Lewis has called for an emergency action plan to tackle the significant rise in energy bills.

He said: “Action & planning is needed now. The zombie govt needs wake up sooner than 5 Sept…”

CBI direct-general Tony Danker has said Boris Johnson “needs to say something to the country to reassure people about what will happen” ahead of “terrifying” energy price cap rise revealed on 26 August.

And Danker told the Today programme that when the prime minister is chosen on 5 September, Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak “need to tell us what will happen – not put it off for a couple of weeks while they do preparations for the emergency budget”.

Danker said Truss and Sunak could get together now to agree on a rough plan to help ease price rises coming into force in October.

“I think they should agree on the principles, given they disagree on the mechanics,” Danker said.

Truss has refused to commit to extra payments to ease the pain of soaring energy bills, as she prioritises tax cuts.

But the CBI chief suggested the rivals could agree to “target the hardest hit” with support, and pledge that the support would be “simple and accessible”.

He said that it was possible to announce measures on 5 September and have them in place for the start of October.

Danker also called on cabinet secretary to help organise government talks with Truss and Sunak.

“They should start talking to the candidates now, civil servants should be working with the candidates now, so that on 5 September we get the answers.”

Boris Johnson complained about his £145,000 job as foreign secretary feeling like imprisonment inside “a steel condom”, according to former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson.

Mr Johnson resigned in 2018 over Theresa May’s Brexit plans – but not before first attracting criticism for comments Richard Ratcliffe said “enabled a propaganda campaign” against his wife Nazanin while held in Tehran, writes Adam Forrest.

“He once described being foreign secretary to me as like being enclosed in a steel condom. I found it odd because I hadn’t asked him,” Baroness Davidson told broadcaster Iain Dale at an Edinburgh Fringe event.

“I think he meant the amount of attention he had from civil servants to make sure he didn’t say anything – imprisoned in a steel condom is what he said,” the Tory peer said.