Children will go ‘ill-clad and hungry’ this winter if cost-of-living crisis not tackled, Gordon Brown warns

Former prime minister says there is ‘no doubt people will go hungry in October’

Gordon Brown has warned that children will be forced to attend school “ill-clad and undernourished” if the government does not act now to support people through the cost-of-living crisis.

The former Labour prime minister urged the government to prioritise putting foward a fresh package of support for families before the winter arrives “no matter what’s happening in the leadership programme”.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Brown warned there is “no doubt people will go hungry in October” – adding that if the government was to leave its intervention until November or December, “pensioners will have to choose between feeding their gas meters or feeding themselves”.

Mr Brown’s comments on Monday morning echoed those he made over the weekend, when he demanded the government come up with an emergency budget before a “financial timebomb” in October “pushes millions over the edge”.

A report commissioned by the ex-Labour leader found that families will be up to £1,600 worse off this year, even after existing government support of up to £1,200 per household has been paid out.

Former Labour leader Gordon Brown (Getty Images)

The report by Professor Donald Hirsch, of Loughborough University, found that 13 million households are at risk of fuel poverty after the next hike in the energy price cap to £3,700 or more in October.

If the prime minister and the contenders to replace him refuse to put forward an emergency package, “parliament should be recalled to force them to do so”, Mr Brown said.

Responding to the calls, former co-chairman of the Conservative Party Oliver Dowden admitted that “there is no doubt that we do need an intervention of a considerable scale” to combat the rising cost of living.

“Of course we need to be on top of this situation and we need to be realistic and honest with people about the scale of the challenge that we’re facing,” he told Sky News.

Taking aim at the former Labour PM, Mr Dowden added: “I would say, though, I don’t take enormous lessons from Gordon Brown, remember this was a man who gave us a 75p rise for pensioners, so he’s not really got a great record on this sort of thing.”

Meanwhile, backers of Liz Truss are continuing to defend the leadership hopeful’s controversial rejection of emergency winter “handouts”.

Ms Truss had told the Financial Times: “The way I would do things is in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts”.

Rushing to defend her on Monday, former Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We will look to do whatever we can to help people - that’s what an emergency budget is about.

“She’s (Ms Truss) willing to do more to help people but her focus is around doing it in a way that puts more money in people’s pockets, creating a high-growth economy with higher wages, more people in work.

“So rather than having handouts, what we do is have a low-tax economy that’s driving growth and therefore with people having more money in their pockets, they’re better placed to deal with some of the challenges that we see.”