Consumer champion Martin Lewis has condemned the Government for acting like 鈥渮ombies鈥 over the energy crisis. He told ITV鈥檚 Good Morning Britain the country is facing a 鈥渘ational crisis on the scale of the pandemic鈥.
鈥淔or every 拢100 direct debit you currently pay, in October you will be paying 拢181, and in January you will be paying 拢215, and that鈥檚 on top of the rises we had in April,鈥 he said.
鈥淭hat is a cataclysmic rise for households; millions of households will simply not be able to afford it. When we get to January, a typical bill will be 拢4,266 a year, many pensioner households pay more than that because they have the heating on more for understandable reasons.
鈥淭hat is 45% of the full new state pension and a bigger proportion of the old state pension. We鈥檙e not talking mortgages. We鈥檙e not talking rent. We鈥檙e talking energy bills. This is absolutely catastrophic.
鈥淎nd for a Government to sit there like zombies saying 鈥榃e can鈥檛 do anything鈥, when you run an organisation, which I have done and many other people have done, when you know there is a crisis of magnificent proportions coming, you do not say 鈥榃e鈥檒l wait until we鈥檝e got the change in our leadership鈥 鈥 you start dealing with it now.鈥
Martin called on the two Conservative leadership candidates to set out how they will tackle the energy crisis to alleviate the 鈥渕ental health damage鈥 facing millions in the 海角视频.
He told ITV鈥檚 Good Morning Britain: 鈥淲hat we鈥檙e facing here is a financial emergency that risks lives. I accept the point that Boris Johnson is running a zombie Government and can鈥檛 do much, but the two candidates 鈥 one of them will be our prime minister 鈥 they need to get together in the national interest to tell us the bare minimum of what they will do.
鈥淚f they can鈥檛 agree, and what we need to hear now, because the mental health damage for millions of people who are panicked about this is manifest, is we need to hear accurate plans.
鈥淲e have some relative detail from Rishi Sunak saying he will look at the handouts he gave in May and increase them, but, unless he鈥檚 doubling them, and he needs to double them, it is not in proportion to what he did back in May.鈥
Speaking about Liz Truss鈥檚 plans, he added: 鈥淚 cannot believe the only proposal will be tax cuts, because many of the poorest, many state pensioners, many on Universal Credit, don鈥檛 pay tax so it will not help them and they simply cannot afford this 拢2,000-a-year or more year-on-year rise.
鈥淎nd getting rid of the green levy, which is a sticking plaster on a gaping wound鈥 The green levy is typically around 拢150 off bills, we鈥檙e talking about a rise of thousands of pounds on bills.鈥
