The Prime Minister raged at SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford for opposing national sources of energy. Mr Blackford told Commons: “Food banks are warning that people are having to choose their food based on whether they can afford the gas to boil it. Families are having to choose what rooms to heat or whether they can afford to at all.
“Some in the Tory Cabinet clearly believe that better weather means that they can happily sit on their hands and do nothing until next winter.
“They obviously don’t get or don’t care that in many parts of Scotland the weather will barely reach above freezing the next week.
“The Chancellor thinks his £200 loan which is forcing people into energy debt is somehow a solution but it clearly isn’t.
“Before the Prime Minister and his Chancellor go on their Easter holidays will they at the very least turn this loan into a grant and finally put some cash into people’s pockets when they need it right now?”
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Mr Johnson replied: “We are doing everything we can. The £9.1million, the Cold Weather Payments.
“He’s right to draw attention to the problem Mr Speaker and we are making a huge investment in supporting people right now and another billion in the Household Support fund to help vulnerable families.
“But when he talks about the cost of energy in Scotland, how absolutely preposterous that the SNP should still be opposed to the use of any of our native hydrocarbons in this country with the result that the Europeans are importing oil and gas from Putin’s Russia.”
Labour accused the Government of “taxing tomorrow’s pensioners while failing today’s pensioners”.
Mr Ashworth will tell a TUC conference on Wednesday: “Retirees of today and tomorrow both deserve security, but after the 12 years of Conservative government they have both been failed and pensioner poverty is on the rise.
“Boris Johnson has broken the consensus on pensions by abandoning his promise on the pension triple lock and from April retirees face the biggest real-terms cut in the pension for 50 years.
“The Tory cost of living crisis is so severe that younger workers are left struggling and unable to put aside enough.
“Meanwhile the OBR is now ringing the alarm bell that people in their 50s (who are) struggling are forced to draw down their defined contribution pension early to help survive, putting at risk a sustainable retirement income.”
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