TORY Minister for Equalities Nadhim Zahawi claimed yesterday morning that ‘blackouts are extremely unlikely this winter,’ when he did the rounds of the TV studios on behalf of the Truss government.
This is despite the National Grid warning that UK households could lose power for three hours at a time this winter.
Zahawi said that a planned public information campaign to urge households to reduce energy consumption this winter was ‘pulled’ by Truss on the grounds of cost.
The media campaign would have cost up to £15m, Zahawi told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
Truss was ideologically opposed to the campaign, saying it would be ‘too interventionist,’ he said, adding that ‘such a campaign is unnecessary anyway because the National Grid and Ofgem are running similar campaigns.’
‘That is, I think, being prudent with taxpayers’ money. It isn’t a divide,’ he said.
Appearing on Sky News, Zahawi responded to questions on splits in the Tory Party, saying: ‘Delay is our biggest enemy. We’ve got two years to plan for the future and I want my colleagues to focus on that. Any dither or delay will result in defeat.’
Commenting on the question of whether benefits are to rise with inflation or be cut, by aligning them to wages, as is said to be Truss’ preferred option, Zahawi claimed: ‘When we take a decision on the benefits uplift we will all row behind it.’
The Truss government is seeking to blame the Bank of England (BoE) for soaring mortgage interest rates, with yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph saying that before he became Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng had ‘pointed out that the Bank had consistently missed its mandated target to keep inflation at 2%.’
The Tory newspaper went on to say that other ‘senior figures’ are accusing the BoE of being ‘too slow to tackle inflation’, saying: ‘One member of the Cabinet made clear that ministers had concerns, saying: “The Bank of England hasn’t put up interest rates as it should”.’
It went on ‘a second Cabinet minister’ blamed the BoE’s ‘gradual increase’ in interest rates, which had been ‘considerably outpaced’ by other countries, including the US.
‘A third Cabinet source also said that “the Bank of England was behind” in increasing interest rates,’ the Tory-supporting newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, an ‘ally of Truss’ was reported in yesterday’s newspapers as describing former Tory Minister Michael Gove as a ‘sadist’ who had ‘stabbed the PM in the back’.
