Rishi Sunak and the Treasury has more to spend to help with living costs – so why is he refusing to do it?

In the current situation, the cost of failing to act is clear: millions will struggle to heat and power their homes, writes Ben Chapman

Rishi Sunak has not ruled out more support with energy bills in the autumn (PA Wire)

Faced with a once-in-a-lifetime shock to Britain’s living standards and warnings that 1.3 million people are set to be thrown into absolute poverty, Boris Johnson’s cabinet met this week to discuss a raft of emergency plans.

In a scene worthy of The Thick of It, ministers are said to have held a “blue sky” session in which they came up with measures so obviously inadequate they would be laughable if the situation facing millions of British people this year wasn’t so grave.

Top of the list was scrapping the need for motorists to get an MOT every 12 months, and increasing the number of children each childminder is allowed to look after at once.