Cost of living crisis: Liz Truss's energy plan is putting you in debt in order to boost oil firms' vast profits – Ian Murray MP

As the dust settles from the transfer of power in both Buckingham Palace and Westminster, things are looking bleak for Liz Truss.

King Charles III has been a devoted servant of this country his entire life, he has been a powerful voice for fairness, and understood the importance of the environment long before many others.

In the words of Justin Welby: “Those who serve will be loved and remembered longer than those who cling to power and privilege are long forgotten.” I hope the Conservatives were listening.

Our new Prime Minister is rightfully facing backlash from people across the country after saying she is fine with the rich getting richer because of her choices.

Even one of her own MPs admitted on BBC Newsnight that her decision to remove the bankers bonus cap is “difficult to sell to constituents”.

It’s been clear for quite some time that trickle-down economics doesn’t work and, in a climate where people are struggling to feed their children and pay their bills, it’s simply unjustifiable.

They pretend this is a difficult decision. There’s nothing difficult about it. It’s just wrong.

On one hand, the Tories demand workers practise pay restraint, with the other they lift the cap on investment bankers’ bonuses so they can earn millions more.

Ahead of a meeting Liz Truss, US President Joe Biden said he was 'sick and tired of trickle-down economics. It has never worked' (Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

This bizarre move will do nothing to support growth and comes straight from the tired Tory playbook on trickle-down economics which hasn't worked for them or the country for decades.

Even the US President said this week: “I am sick and tired of trickle-down economics. It has never worked. We're building an economy from the bottom up.”

On energy, the only fair solution to the energy crisis is Labour’s price freeze. Liz Truss and her government must urgently commit to it, not some halfway house for newspaper headlines that helps little.

But core to any solution is the question of who pays? By ruling out a windfall tax, Liz Truss, in one of her first decisions, has written a blank cheque to the oil-and-gas giants making £170 billion in excess profits, and, instead, you will foot the bill.

They will either mortgage your energy bill for decades or add it to an already record national debt that will cost billions in interest payments for generations.

Every penny her government refuses to raise from those profiteering from this crisis is money that they will be loading onto you for years to come.

These are desperate and senseless policy decisions from a Prime Minister who knows that after 12 years of failed government, they’re on their last legs. The Conservatives are playing on borrowed time and this was clear from the minute Liz Truss was elected.

She admits her tax cuts will help the rich but what she doesn’t admit is that taking tax levels back to where they were just last year and cancelling rises yet to happen will not give us growth but a continuation of the last 12 Tory years of failure on growth.

Beyond the immediate crisis, we need a clean energy sprint for home-grown power and a national warm homes mission to cut bills for families.

After 12 years of failed Conservative energy and economic policy, only Labour can deliver the fresh start the country needs.

Ian Murray is Labour MP for Edinburgh South