The new Prime Minister is expected to tell MPs that bills will be frozen at around £2,500 a year until 2024 as part of a taxpayer-funded support package of up to £130bn as she tries to tackle the most significant financial crisis in a generation. Senior Tories predicted the rescue would generate enough goodwill to guarantee her survival in No 10 at least until Christmas, but warned she had a big challenge to keep her deeply divided party in line after the new year. In a move that will excite some Tory supporters, Truss is understood to announce an immediate end to the moratorium on fracking for shale gas, with new drilling potentially starting within weeks as part of her hydrocarbon-based push for greater energy security . The practice is highly controversial – a moratorium was imposed in 2019 due to earthquakes the practice can cause – and Truss has previously said fracking would only happen in areas where there was local support. It is not known if this will change. With the pound falling to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985 and the country sinking into recession, charities and think tanks have warned that the government’s plans to cap energy bills are “poorly targeted” and will fail to protect low-income families without additional support package. The Institute for Fiscal Studies was among those who said ministers should adopt a scheme that does not benefit the wealthiest households. Ahead of her statement in the Commons, Truss said: “I know families and businesses across the country are worried about how they will cope this autumn and winter. “Putin’s war in Ukraine and the weaponization of gas supplies in Europe are driving up global prices – and this has only made it clear that we need to strengthen our long-term energy security and supply. “We will take action now to help people and businesses with their bills, but also take decisive action to tackle the root cause of these problems so we don’t find ourselves in this position again.” Earlier, at Prime Minister’s First Questions against Keir Starmer, she ruled out extending the windfall tax on oil and gas producers to fund her support package, adding: “I think it’s wrong to stop companies from investing in the UK. , just when we need to develop the economy”. But with Treasury forecasts estimating that higher prices could lead to energy companies making £170bn more than previously forecast over the next two years, Starmer repeatedly pressed Truss on how a freeze would be funded. prices – was seen by Labor as a vulnerable position for the government given concerns about the public debt. He told her: “It’s not going to be cheap, and the real choice, the political choice, is who’s going to pay? Is he really telling us that he’s going to leave these huge super profits on the table and make workers foot the bill for decades to come? Borrowing more than necessary – that’s the real cost of choosing to protect oil and gas profits, isn’t it?” New polling by campaign group 38 Degrees has shown that three-quarters of Tory voters would prefer a tax windfall to further public borrowing to fund the new package. It found that just 13% of people supported funding the measures through new borrowing. Asked separately to rate the prospect of a windfall tax, 74% of Conservative voters supported it, rising to 84% among 2019 voters. Despite only being in power for a few days, Truss has a huge task to restore her party after an explosive leadership contest, a brutal removal from the cabinet of all senior ministers who had supported her rival, Rishi Sunak, and the Conservatives trailing in the polls. . A former cabinet minister said the package would be big enough to generate enough goodwill from the party for the rest of the year, but warned that Truss would need to show enough control and flexibility to get through an even tougher period. to a possible recession next year. Truss’s approach has led several big Conservative names – including former health secretary Sajid Javid and housing and high standards secretary Michael Gove – to the backbenches. The former minister said critical interventions are likely to begin from that point. “Sajid, or Rishi, or Michael – they won’t go quietly,” they predicted. The new prime minister was greeted with muted cheers as she arrived in the PMQs room on Wednesday and Tory supporters appeared shocked by her speech at the 1922 Committee, with several describing it as “good”. While others were more tentative with praise for her directness in responding to questions from colleagues, one noted: “No one is going to shoot her yet. It is not the PLP [Parliamentary Labour party].” According to those in the room, Truss promised her MPs that she had learned from one of the big mistakes of Boris Johnson’s administration and would listen more to the concerns of supporters. “Expectations were relatively low, but she managed to keep the party behind her,” said one of her performers hours earlier at PMQs. A cabinet minister also mused: “That went as well as it could have.” Although Sunak’s supporters bit their tongues until the cabinet reshuffle was complete, few began to raise concerns when it was over. “He said this would be an all-talent office – and it clearly isn’t,” said one. A sacked minister said they were shocked and disappointed by the “racial” nature of their sacking. However, Truss completed her reshuffle last night by handing out an olive branch to Sunak’s supporters in the junior ministerial ranks. Robert Jenrick, a high-profile supporter of the former chancellor for the Tory leadership, becomes health secretary, while Mark Spencer joins the environment department. Hard-line Brexiter Steve Baker has become a minister in the Northern Ireland Office, where he will be responsible for reaching a deal with the European Union on the thorny issue of trade after Brexit. Meanwhile, Thérèse Coffey, Truss’ new health secretary, is weighing up a package worth hundreds of millions to help ease pressures on the NHS by freeing up hospital bed space. It is considering proposals to pay care homes in England to care for healthcare patients who cannot be discharged because of a lack of social care. About 13,000 hospital beds are occupied by “delayed discharge” patients. Additional reporting by Denis Campbell
