Sunak supporter claims rival Truss will leave families ‘ON THE STREETS’ during cost-of-living crisis

Liz Truss‘s approach to tackling the cost-of-living crisis will leave families ‘on the streets’ this winter, a supporter of Tory rival Rishi Sunak has claimed.

With just two weeks’ left in the Conservative leadership contest, both Ms Truss’s and Mr Sunak’s campaign are continuing to trade vicious blows over their competing plans to support Britons with soaring energy bills.

The deepening tensions between the two camps saw Ms Truss this morning accused of dodging scrutiny and ‘flying blind’ with her plans for an emergency budget.

But the Foreign Secretary‘s team hit back to insist that ‘immediate action’ – through cutting taxes and scrapping green levies on energy bills – was needed to tackle the squeeze on household incomes.

Mr Sunak’s supporters – who have seen their candidate admit he is now the ‘underdog’ in the race for Number 10 – heightened their attacks on Ms Truss’s focus on tax cuts, rather than ‘handouts,’ to help Britons over the coming months.

The Foreign Secretary has remained ambiguous about what extra direct payments she might offer poorer households to help pay their energy bills – with some forecasts suggesting the cost of gas and electricity could pass £5,000 a year by April.

This contrasts with Mr Sunak’s approach, with the former chancellor pledging to slash VAT on energy bills for all while providing more direct support for pensioners and those on benefits.

Kevin Hollinrake, the MP for Thirsk and Malton who is supporting Rishi Sunak’s campaign, suggested some Britons would be left homeless under Liz Truss’s proposals

The Foreign Secretary has also come under fire over suggestions she is not planning to ask independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for a forecast

Mr Sunak is widely viewed to be trailing Ms Truss in the Tory leadership race as the battle to enter Number 10 enters the final two weeks

Kevin Hollinrake, the MP for Thirsk and Malton who is supporting Mr Sunak’s campaign, this morning suggested that some Britons would be left homeless under Ms Truss’s proposals.

He told Sky News of the Foreign Secretary’s plans: ‘She’s talking about tax cuts that would help a low income household to the tune of about £1 a week.

‘And yet it would help a household like mine to the tune of about £30 a week.

‘It’s simply not right. These people are going to be on the streets. Things are going to be that bad for some households.’

Mr Hollinrake also compared Mr Sunak’s ‘affordable’ plans to Ms Truss’s ‘promise to spend £65billion in tax cuts and extra spending and that’s without even providing those targeted measures of support that will inevitably be needed’.

‘It can’t be a case of the magic money tree again and we have got to provide the right support but also make it targeted and affordable for taxpayers,’ he added.

Mr Sunak’s supporters also took aim at Ms Truss over suggestions she is not planning to ask independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for a forecast ahead of the emergency budget she is planning for next month.

The former chancellor’s team accused his rival of trying to ‘avoid independent scrutiny’ as they put pressure on the Foreign Secretary to spell out how she would deliver billions of pounds’ worth of tax cuts and greater cost of living help.

Mel Stride, the chair of the House of Commons’ Treasury select committee and a supporter of Mr Sunak, told LBC radio: ‘At the moment the Liz camp are saying I believe that there will not be any OBR forecast produced at that time and that is kind of like flying blind.

‘It means that you do all these dramatic things on tax etcetera but you don’t actually know what the independent forecaster believes the impact will be on the public finances and I think that is quite a serious situation were that to come about.’

The comments came after Ms Truss, the frontrunner to be the next prime minister, used a Sunday newspaper interview to signal she could help firms and households with soaring energy bills through direct support this winter.

The Foreign Secretary told the Sun on Sunday she was looking at assistance ‘across the board’, despite in the past insisting she was focused on tax cuts rather than what she termed ‘giving out handouts’.