Liz Truss could cancel a £400 energy bills discount for richer Brits, a key ally revealed today.
All electricity bill payers in Britain are due to get £400 off this winter, spread over six months between October and March, as the price cap doubles to about £4,000 a year.
But Ms Truss has attacked “handouts” set up by her rival Rishi Sunak - who’s confessed he’ll give his own £400 to charity - as “Gordon Brown economics”.
It’s understood that, while Ms Truss has no immediate plans to scrap the £400 discount for wealthier Brits, her team have not ruled it out as an option.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke told the Sunday Telegraph the plans should be “revisited” and it was a “question we need to go back around”.
The Truss supporter added: “I do find it pretty odd that high earners are receiving £400 off their bills…
"It is not an ideal outcome, putting it very mildly, that people who don't need it are receiving quite substantial sums of money from the state.
“That is not, frankly, a targeted package, is it?"
Mr Clarke is a key ally of Ms Truss who is still in the Treasury, and is helping draw up options to support Brits for when the next Prime Minister arrives.
Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi - another Truss backer - has asked officials to lay out plans to cut gas and electricity bills at the start of next year.
This plan would shave down the price cap by scrapping a new allowance suppliers will be allowed to charge families this winter.
Instead the cost would be covered using finance set up by the Treasury and Bank of England.
It’s claimed this could shave £400 off the price cap per year. But it is too late to make it work for October and could only happen in January.
An ally of Mr Zahawi said he was examining it closely, and it could be “a positive step that saves consumers a significant amount of money”.
But Adam Scorer, chief executive of National Energy Action, was scathing and told candidates to “wake up”.
He told Times Radio the crisis will add to the 20,000 annual deaths caused by cold homes.
He continued: “Collectively, government, prime ministerial candidates and opposition parties are only just waking up to the scale of the intervention that is required in order to save people from a winter that will not only cause financial harm, but it will ruin the mental health of millions.
“It will ruin the physical health and well being of 1000s and it will add to the 20,000 people that die every year in the UK because of a cold home."
Ofgem will announce on August 26 how high the price cap will rise from October 1.
Bills are expected to top the yearly equivalent of £3,600 in October and £4,200 in January, with some estimates saying they could go even higher.
Labour ’s Keir Starmer will tomorrow announce he would freeze the energy price cap altogether at £1,971 a year throughout this winter.
