EYE-WATERING energy bills are a “price worth paying” to keep the pressure up on Mad Vlad Putin , Liz Truss has insisted.
But hard-up Brits should make up their own minds whether to turn down the heating or pull on a jumper to save cash this winter.
Crippling energy Bills are a “price worth paying” to keep Britain free, the PM has said
Liz Truss is in New York for the UN General Assembly
The PM insisted that “our long term security is paramount”.
However, she did not want to see pressed families have to stump up the staggering costs of huge energy price rises, stressing: “I don’t think that’s right.”
Western nations are refusing to buy Russian gas in response to Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.
The scramble for to get power from other providers has pushed up demand and caused global gas prices to sky-rocket.
Speaking to reporters as she arrived in New York for the UN General Assembly summit, she vowed: “It’s a price worth paying for Britain.”
But she said ministers “are not talking about rationing of energy” and turning off the heating to save families money, instead saying she would support more “energy efficiency measures like home insulation”.
Ms Truss stressed: “Ultimately everyone makes their own decisions about how they decide to do those things.”
Ministers will tomorrow lay out more details of the £150billion energy bailout promised earlier this month.
Businesses are waiting on tenterhooks to find out how they can claim the help – which will cap the average energy bill at £2,500 a year for at least two years.
It’s expected that their energy will be capped at a similar cost, but it’s not clear how this will work.
Cafes, pubs and small firms would have gone bust and taken thousands of jobs with them if they had done nothing to help, Ms Truss said.
Her “energy price guarantee” will also help reduce inflation by up to five per cent, she claimed.
The PM added: “We cannot jeopardise our security for the safety of cheap energy.
“That’s the mistake the entire Western world made post-war – it’s become too dependent on authoritarian regimes.
“But what we can’t allow to happen is for that cost to go on the bills of people across the United Kingdom, which is why we have stepped in as a Government to make sure that people are able to get through this winter and the next.”