Why the Tories must face the truth about energy bills

One influential figure on the centre-left told me recently that he isn’t bothered about who wins the Tory leadership contest. He argued that the tsunami of problems waiting to hit the new leader – rising energy prices, inflation and a creaking NHS, to name but a few – means the Tories will be in trouble regardless of whether it’s Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak who triumphs.

These issues are enough to sink any government, but especially one that has been in power for 12 years. Given how Boris Johnson dominated politics, whoever succeeds him will to some extent feel like a fresh start. But they won’t be able to pull off his trick of presenting their administration as entirely new.

This is a particular problem for the party as mistakes made, or things not done, since 2010 have compounded the looming energy crisis. It was clearly an error to let the UK’s gas storage run down: Centrica shut the Rough storage site off the Yorkshire coast – which once accounted for 70 per cent of Britain’s natural gas storage capacity – in 2017.