Tory leadership contest: Liz Truss hits back at 'portents of doom' after Dominic Raab says her tax plans would be 'electoral suicide'

Liz Truss has hit back at claims that her plans for an emergency tax-cutting budget would be an "electoral suicide note", accusing Rishi Sunak's supporters of spreading "portents of doom".

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, who is backing the former chancellor in the Conservative leadership race, said the foreign secretary's promise to scrap the increase in National Insurance would do little to help families struggling with soaring prices, warning the wrong move "could prove politically fatal".

But on a campaign visit to Huddersfield, Ms Truss dismissed what she described as "declinist talk", insisting the country can look forward to the future with optimism.

"What I care about is Britain being successful. I don't agree with these portents of doom. I don't agree with this declinist talk," she said.

"I believe our country's best days are ahead of us."

Politics Hub: 'Fundamental difference' makes emergency cost of living plan impossible

Writing in The Times, Mr Raab said: "If we go to the country in September with an emergency budget that fails to measure up to the task in hand, voters will not forgive us as they see their living standards eroded and the financial security they cherish disappear before their eyes.

"Such a failure will read unmistakably to the public like an electoral suicide note and, as sure as night follows day, see our great party cast into the impotent oblivion of opposition."

People 'tearing their hair out' at Tory infighting

Conservative minister Paul Scully, who is supporting Liz Truss in the leadership race, condemned the attack, telling Times Radio that people must be "tearing their hair out" at Tory infighting.

It came as former Tory chief whip Mark Harper, who is also supporting the former chancellor, told Sky News he agreed with Mr Raab.

When pressed if he agreed with the use of language he said: "I think if the government doesn't help the poorest and most vulnerable people to get through the winter, to pay their energy bills and to put food on the table, then I think that will be electorally very damaging."

The Truss campaign has been forced on the defensive in recent days after the foreign secretary suggested there would be no "handouts" if she won the leadership contest and that her priority was reducing the tax burden.

Her allies have insisted her comments were "misinterpreted" and further direct support to help struggling families has not been ruled out.

However she refused to commit to extra support on Tuesday after analysts delivered a shock warning that energy bills could top £4,200 in the new year.

Ms Truss said: "I am not going to write the budget in advance. We will see what the situation is in the autumn."

Her plan to reverse the National Insurance increase, which Mr Sunak brought in as chancellor to boost NHS and social care funding, has been criticised by his allies for disproportionally benefitting high earners.

However - in a sideswipe at Mr Sunak's decision to put up taxes while he was in the Treasury - Ms Truss said the priority has to be reducing the tax burden in order to stimulate growth.

"What I am talking about is enabling people to keep more money in their own pockets," she said.

"What I don't believe in is taxing people to the highest level in 70 years and then giving them their own money back. We are Conservatives. We believe in low taxes."

Families 'don't know how they will get through winter'

Poverty campaigners say neither of the plans set out by the leadership contenders go far enough, as calls grow for Mr Sunak and Ms Truss to sit around a table with Boris Johnson and thrash out emergency measures.

The Bank of England has forecast inflation is set to hit 13% while average household energy bills are predicted to reach approximately £3,582 a year for the average household from October - up from the £3,359 predicted earlier this month.

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The Liberal Democrats are demanding parliament be recalled from its summer recess to pass a law to scrap impending hikes in energy prices.

An analysis carried out by the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows low-income families need £2550 to meet extra costs from the current crisis.

They said that cutting VAT on fuel - as Mr Sunak has promised - would help those who use more energy rather than those who need most help with their bills.

Meanwhile, suspending green levies on energy bills, as Ms Truss has pledged, only reduces bills by about £150 a year.

The charity is calling for the financial package of support for those on benefits to double and to make debt deduction repayments more affordable to stop people falling further into hardship.