Consumer champion Martin Lewis has warned that soaring energy bills are turning into a “national crisis” on the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic and will put lives at risk.
The founder of MoneySavingExpert called on the two Conservative leadership candidates to set out how they will tackle the energy crisis as households face a “cataclysmic” rise in energy bills.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that Government figures are acting like “zombies” over the mounting problem and need to act now.
“For every £100 direct debit you currently pay, in October you will be paying £181, and in January you will be paying £215, and that’s on top of the rises we had in April,” he said.
“That is a cataclysmic rise for households; millions of households will simply not be able to afford it.”
He said a typical bill will be £4,266 a year from January – 45% of the full new state pension and a bigger proportion of the old state pension.
Mr Lewis added: “What we’re facing here is a financial emergency that risks lives.
“I accept the point that Boris Johnson is running a zombie Government and can’t do much, but the two candidates – one of them will be our prime minister – they need to get together in the national interest to tell us the bare minimum of what they will do.
“If they can’t agree… what we need to hear now, because the mental health damage for millions of people who are panicked about this is manifest, is we need to hear accurate plans.”
It seems that calling out the government for doing pretty much nothing to stop the energy crisis has ruffled a few feathers, and that has been amplified by the right-wing press.
A Mailplus.co.uk article by Stephen Glover was published with the title: “I don’t doubt we’re facing a serious crisis. But do the BBC and its favourite prophet of doom Martin Lewis have to be so apocalyptic?”
Going after Martin lewis, a non-political peoples’ champion has not gone down well:
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Related: ‘As bad as the pandemic’: Martin Lewis sounds energy bills alarm
