Rishi Sunak
(Picture: PA Wire)Some families struggling with the growing cost-of-living crisis are to be offered more support, Rishi Sunak appeared to signal on Friday.
Ahead of the Spring Statement next Wednesday, the Chancellor said: “I have enormous sympathy for what people are going through at the moment and that’s why we will always be there to help make a difference where we can.”
But he also stressed that some factors like global inflation are “somewhat out of my control”.
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee nudged up interest rates on Thursday from 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent amid warnings that inflation could jump to eight per cent, possibly even spiralling into double digits.
Energy and petrol bills are soaring. Millions of people are also set to see their pay packet hit next month by the 1.25 percentage point rise in National Insurance contributions, to plough £12 billion into the NHS and tackling the social care crisis, and the freezing of the thresholds for the basic and higher rate of income tax.
In an interview with Tory MP Paul Maynard at the Conservatives’ spring forum in Blackpool for an update on next week’s fiscal announcement, Mr Sunak said: “It is about taking stock of the situation which, of course, is difficult.
“I can see that, and I have enormous sympathy for what people are going through at the moment and that’s why we will always be there to help make a difference where we can.
“I can’t solve every problem, no government can solve every problem, particularly when you are grappling with global inflationary forces - they are somewhat out of my control.
“But as you saw a month or so ago when we announced the very significant intervention to help people meet some of the additional costs of energy bills, where we can make a difference, of course I can - I’m always going to do that, we’ve done it over the last two years.
“So, we will have an update on the situation and a little bit of a look forward to where we are heading.”
