LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak will have more to say in the coming days on helping voters with the current cost of living crisis, Johnson said in parliament on Tuesday.
Speaking during a debate on his legislative agenda, announced earlier in the day, Johnson outlined the damage the COVID-19 pandemic had done to the economy and public finances, compounded by a spike in energy prices.
He said the government had already helped families with the increase to their cost of living, and would continue to do so.
“We will continue to use all our ingenuity and compassion for as long as it takes. My Right Honourable friend the Chancellor (Sunak) and I will be saying more about this in the days to come,” Johnson said
It was not clear whether Johnson was signalling another imminent round of support.
A finance ministry source said plans for any support on energy bills would be announced once details of the next price cap level, due to be set from October, were known.
“There will be no emergency budget and budget timelines will be set out in the usual way,” the source said.
Later in his speech Johnson set out the limits of what his government could do: “However great our compassion and ingenuity we cannot simply spend our way out of this problem. We need to grow out of this problem,” he said.
(Reporting by William James and Farouq Suleiman, editing by Elizabeth Piper and Alistair Smout)
