Johnson says his successor will have firepower to help people

London:  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has declared he is “absolutely confident” that his successor “will have the fiscal firepower and the headroom to continue to continue to look after people”.

The Prime Minister also said he is “certain” that whoever wins the Conservative leadership election will want to make announcements about how they will “further help people” struggling to get by, amid a cost-of-living crisis, reports dpa news agency.

Speaking at a Downing Street reception on Tuesday, Johnson cracked jokes about it being one of his last events in the garden at Number 10, and the next Prime Minister being either a man or a woman, amid a leadership race after he resigned earlier this year.

“In these difficult financial times people are feeling the squeeze across our country and they’re feeling the impact in particular of the energy price spikes that are being caused by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war in Ukraine and of course it’s right that the Government is doing everything that we can to help and we’re putting 1,200 pounds into the pockets of the eight million most vulnerable households and 400 pounds for everybody to help with the cost of energy, 300 pounds for pensioners, 150 pounds off council tax, and the money will keep coming in throughout the autumn, more coming in September and October,” he said.

“And of course as some of you may have picked up, this is going to be one of my last events in the garden in Downing Street and there will be a new prime minister very shortly, I can tell you for certain it will be either a man or a woman.”

The two candidates left in the race to replace him are former chancellor Rishi Sunak and incumbent Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who leads in the polls.

Johnson went on to say that “whoever he or she may be, they, I’m absolutely certain, will be wanting to make some more announcements in September/October about what we’re going to do further to help people in the next period in December/January and I just want you to know that I’m absolutely confident that we will have the fiscal firepower and the headroom to continue to continue to look after people as we’ve done throughout”.

–IANS