Boris Johnson has said people should not worry about putting food on the table this winter, amid surging energy prices and a cut to universal credit.
The prime minister told BBC News: "I don't believe people will be short of food - and wages are actually rising."
It comes after Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng warned some households face a "very difficult winter".
Energy and food bills are rising due to a spike in global gas prices - and many families face a £20-a-week benefit cut.
The cost of protecting customers from failing energy providers could lead to higher bills, the boss of the energy regulator Ofgem has warned.
Speaking to the BBC in New York, where he has been meeting world leaders at the United Nations, Mr Johnson said the surge in energy prices was a "short-term" problem caused by "the global economy coming back to life" after the coronavirus pandemic.
Government strikes deal to restart CO2 production
Is the UK headed for a gas shortage this win
A Met Police officer who murdered Sarah Everard after kidnapping her under the guise of an arrest has been sentenced to a whole-life prison term.
Wayne Couzens abducted the 33-year-old as she walked home from a friend's house in Clapham on 3 March.
Ahead of sentencing Couzens, the judge said the case was "devastating, tragic and wholly brutal".
"You've betrayed your family and there's no evidence of genuine contrition," he told Couzens.
Lord Justice Fulford described the circumstances of the murder as "grotesque".
He said the seriousness of the case was so "exceptionally high" that it warranted a whole-life order.
"The misuse of a police officer's role such as occurred in this case in order to kidnap, rape and murder a lone victim is of equal seriousness as a murder for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause," he told the Old Bailey.
|