Cost of living crisis: Government "must act to ensure parents can feed their children" as energy cap skyrockets

The next Prime Minister has been warned it will be a “sheer fantasy” to think they can get away with putting no more support in place, as Ofgem announced prices will rise by 80 per cent from October 1.

Front-runner for Number 10 Liz Truss admitted she was looking at assistance “across the board” despite in the past insisting she was focused on slashing taxes, as outgoing premier Boris Johnson broke his silence on the crisis, telling reporters that more help will be announced next month - but declined to give further detail.

The stark decision many families may face between heating and eating represents a “dagger to the heart of millions of people up and down the country,” according to one charity leader.

Ofgem confirmed an 80.06 per cent rise in the energy price cap for around 24 million households in England, Scotland and Wales, sending the average household’s yearly bill from £1,971 to £3,549.

The cap will remain in place until December 31, when it will be adjusted again, with latest forecasts warning bills could surge again to around £5,400 in January and around £7,000 in April.

Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “The Ofgem price hike is like a dagger to the heart of millions of people up and down the country.

“As a result of the decision, parents will be unable to feed their children, the sick and elderly will be condemned to worsening health, disabled people will go without vital medical equipment and households will be forced into poverty for the first time in generations.

“All the solutions lie at the Westminster Government’s door, yet it is silent in the face of this looming disaster.”

One senior analyst at the York based anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said he had never had to check figures over so many times as they are “so staggering they feel incorrect.”

Peter Matejic, chief analyst at the JRF, said: “With the price cap very likely to increase significantly and forecast to remain high well throughout next year, our analysis shows it is a sheer fantasy to think struggling families can pay these stratospheric energy bills without further Government intervention on a significant scale.

“In all my years as an analyst, I haven’t double-checked a piece of analysis as much as this one because it is so staggering, it feels incorrect. It is impossible to think a care worker or a shop assistant will have to scramble to find hundreds more pounds to pay for their heating or that the entirety of someone’s income for a whole year will be less than their energy bill.

“ But that’s what these figures suggest will be the case unless significant further steps are taken quickly.”

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves accused Boris Johnson of “putting his out of office on months ago” in the wake of the Ofgen cap being announced.

The Leeds West MP said: “People deserve a government that can meet the scale of this national emergency – not this spectacle of a Tory leadership race or a Prime Minister that put his out of office on months ago.

“Our mission for home grown renewable energy and to insulate 19 million homes will keep bills down for the long term too.”

nd an emotional Martin Lewis, the consumer expert, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the cap is “a catastrophe, plain and simple.”