Tory frontrunner Truss refuses to offer ‘handouts’ to help with energy prices

Foreign secretary promises tax cuts ‘from day one’ if she becomes PM

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”.