Liz Truss rejects ‘handouts’ as solution to cost-of-living crisis

Tory leadership contender’s tax cut plan will not help the hungry, warns business leader

Conservative leadership frontrunner Liz Truss has said she would help people deal with the cost-of-living crisis by lowering taxes, not giving “handouts”.

With household energy bills expected to soar to more than £3,500 in October, the government is facing growing calls for a repeat of former chancellor Rishi Sunak’s £30bn package to ease the impact of price rises earlier this year.

But Ms Truss downplayed the significance of warnings from the Bank of England of 13 per cent inflation and the longest recession in a generation, telling Tory activists: “Forecasts are not destiny.”