Liz Truss has pledged to make an announcement on energy bills this week if she is named Tory leader tomorrow.
Millions of Brits facing a plunge into fuel poverty will be holding their breath after the frontrunner pledged “immediate action on energy bills and energy supply.”
Ms Truss – the favourite to be named the next PM at 12.30pm tomorrow and confirmed by the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday – said it will come before an emergency budget, tipped for September 21.
Yet she refused to say what her help will be – after spending weeks attacking cash payments as “handouts”.
And today she added: “Sticking plasters and kicking the can down the road will not do. I am ready to take the tough decisions to rebuild our economy.”
Ms Truss said she would appoint a council of economic advisers to help guide her and her chancellor.
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And the crisis will be the focus of her “very short” first address from Downing Street on Tuesday after she jets back from Balmoral, the Times reported.
But campaigners, Labour and economists warn her plan to undo National Insurance and corporation tax rises will not touch the sides for the poorest.
Household bills are set to rocket from £1,277 a year last winter to £3,549 a year this winter – and far higher for businesses, who warn they face financial ruin.
And according to The Sunday Times, police are braced for “civil unrest” and rising crime like burglary this winter as cost pressures grow.
Ms Truss wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: “I recognise that many of the growth measures we take won’t have an immediate impact.
“But it is vital we get started now and build a better economy for the future and pay down our debt as a country and provide the future for our children.
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“There will be tough decisions to be made, and I am prepared to make those tough decisions as prime minister.”
Treasury officials were drawing up options last week including raising Universal Credit and giving more targeted support to vulnerable groups.
Rishi Sunak backer David Davis warned Sky News: “It’s going to be on a par with the furlough scheme, in terms it’s going to be tens of billions of costs.
“it’s going to be rewriting markets, it’s going to be intervening.
“That’s what should happen – it has to happen.”
He warned Ms Truss against creating a “Cabinet of loyalists”, adding: “There is real risk the party will feel divided and if that’s the case we won’t win the next election.”
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Ms Truss’ ally and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke wrote in The Sun on Sunday: “She knows that people need help now, and will take decisive and immediate action to this end.
“She will support people in the short term, and fix our economy for the long term.”
And Boris Johnson, in a 1,600-word farewell article in the Sunday Express, added: “I know that both candidates will do even more to help people with the cash they need to pay their bills, in addition to the large sums that are already arriving in the next weeks and months.
“Both candidates will find other ways to ease the pressures on families – such as sensible tax cuts.”
Ms Truss’ south London neighbour Kwasi Kwarteng is tipped to become her Chancellor while ‘anti-woke’ right-winger Suella Braverman could be made Home Secretary.
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There is also a growing expectation that the next prime minister will make an early visit to Kyiv to shore up support for Ukraine.
In what is set to be a frenzied few days for UK politics, Mr Johnson’s successor will be announced on Monday, taking over as prime minister the following day.
Mr Johnson and his successor will go to Balmoral, rather than Buckingham Palace, for the appointment of the new prime minister on Tuesday, in a break from tradition.
The Queen will receive Mr Johnson on Tuesday at her Aberdeenshire home, where he will formally tender his resignation.
This will be followed by an audience with the new Tory leader, where she or he will be invited to form a government.