Boris Johnson ‘not attracted’ by new taxes but 'no option is off the table'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Boris Johnson has come under increased pressure to introduce a windfall tax on oil and gas firms' profits amid the growing cost of living crisis. The prime minister has insisted that the government will "put our arms around people" despite declining to specify what support might be offered to struggling households and when.

The treasury appears to have rejected a return to the £20-a-week increase in Universal Credit which was initially rolled out during the coronavirus pandemic. Many MPs have brought a new wave of pressure on the Prime Minister, encouraging him to introduce a windfall tax to pay for a new measure to help poorer households cope with rising food and energy bills.

“No option is off the table, let’s be absolutely clear about that," Mr Johnson said. "I’m not attracted, intrinsically, to new taxes. But as I have said throughout, we have got to do what we can, and we will, to look after people through the aftershocks of Covid, through the current pressures on energy prices that we are seeing post-Covid and with what’s going on in Russia and we are going to put our arms round people, just as we did during the pandemic.”

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He added that there was "more that we are going to do" but "you'll just have to wait a little bit longer". The £20 uplift to Universal Credit was scrapped in October and was seen as a way of targeting help at the poorest in the UK.

Michael Lewis, chief executive of energy giant E.ON UK, said on Sunday that increasing benefits payments would ease the pressure on those facing skyrocketing energy bills accompanied by soaring inflation. Despite this suggestion, it was ruled out by treasury chief secretary Simon