Could the squeeze on living standards bring down Boris?

There is about to be a two-phase onslaught on the living standards of those on low-to-middling incomes.

On 1 October the energy price cap, for dual fuel, rises from £1,150 to £1,277. This is a rise of 11 per cent, at a time when furlough is ending and just a few days before the £1,000 a year uplift to Universal Credit is removed (which presumably Boris Johnson will not be swanking about in his big speech to Tory conference). That’s the first hit to living standards.

There’ll then be a gradual further erosion of living standards with rising food inflation (of around five per cent, as per what Tesco’s chairman John Allan said on my show this week).

The second big onslaught however comes in April, when the energy price cap is expected to be raised a further 17 per cent (!!!) to just under £1,500, based on the current wholesale price for gas.

And that is precisely when Boris Johnson’s 1.25