A government minister has been forced to deny that the business secretary has been “telling porkies”, amid an escalating internal row over the global gas shortage.
After a string of factories warned they were days from collapse owing to soaring energy prices, Kwasi Kwarteng yesterday suggested to the BBC that he was discussing potential measures with Chancellor Rishi Sunak to alleviate the crisis.
But, in what The Times called “a highly unusual rebuke”, the Treasury issued a “stinging slapdown”, denying that any talks had taken place.
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A department source told Sky News that it was “not the first time” the business secretary had “made things up in interviews”, adding: “To be crystal clear, the Treasury are not involved in any talks.”
Security Minister Damian Hinds defended Kwarteng, however, during a series of interviews this morning. Asked by Sky’s Kay Burley if his cabinet colleague might have been “telling porkies”, Hinds replied: ���No, of course not.”
The security chief was pushed on the subject again later on LBC, with presenter Nick Ferrari asking: “So Rishi Sunak’s lying?”
“Hang on – government ministers are in contact with each other the whole time, that’s how government works,” Hinds responded. “Clearly, this is a serious situation with the rising global price of gas.
“Of course the business secretary, the energy secretary, is going to be totally focused on the impact of that on industry, particularly industry-intensive industry. Equally, the Treasury is going to be focused on the impacts on the economy.”
Power-intensive businesses, including steel-makers and glass manufacturers, have been hit especially hard by the rise in gas prices, which have jumped by 250% since January.
Last night, a “Red Wall” Tory MP told The Telegraph that the government’s response to the problem would test its support for seats in the North. “You can’t level up if you end up levelling heavy industry in the North of England,” the unnamed insider said.
Other Conservative MPs “said the row was a typical example of squabbling between ministers when a prime minister is away”, according to the paper, which noted that Boris Johnson is away on holiday with his wife, Carrie, and one-year-old son, Wilfred.
The PM is understood to be staying in a luxury villa in Marbella owned by his “rich chum” and fellow Tory Zac Goldsmith until Thursday, said The Mirror.
As Johnson soaks up the sun in “Marbs”, popular with 20-somethings and the cast of The Only Way is Essex (Towie), “millions face soaring UK energy bills, a cruel benefit cut, empty supermarket shelves and higher petrol prices – if they can get any”, said the paper.
A Westminster source said the timing of the holiday showed “just how out of touch he is with ordinary Brits facing bills, bills and yet more bills”.
The “timing” shows no such thing, said The Telegraph’s Patrick O’Flynn, who argued that few prime ministerial foreign holidays are greeted with enthusiasm.
The “confected outrage” over such breaks have become a media tradition, he wrote. But “the idea that the political leader of the nation should not be able to take time out somewhere pleasant while there is a single group that can be identified anywhere in society in some kind of unfortunate plight isn't just absurd; it shows just how febrile public discourse has become”.
Nobody should begrudge Boris a brief getaway, concluded O’Flynn. “We can only hope that in between his daily conference-week jogs, he was also following the Towie mantra ‘no carbs before Marbs’, or photographs in the popular prints are bound to show him being some way off ‘Beach-body Ready’.”
