Cost-of-living crisis: Nicola Sturgeon says Boris Johnson needs to 'stop talking' and show 'action'

Boris Johnson needs to “stop talking” and “let us see the action” in dealing with the cost-of-living crisis, Scotland’s First Minister has said.

Nicola Sturgeon said it is “not enough” for the Prime Minister to say Tuesday’s Queen’s Speech was about helping people to mitigate rising costs “when there was nothing in the speech that would actually deliver that”.

Speaking on Wednesday, Ms Sturgeon said the steps taken so far by the UK Government to assist households “fall way short of what is needed”.

Nicola Sturgeon. Picture: Jane Barlow - Pool/Getty Images

She added: “There is an urgency here. People are struggling right now to feed their children, to heat their homes, and we know it’s going to get worse.”

Mr Johnson has come under fire over a lack of short-term measures in the Queen’s Speech to help people facing soaring costs.

In response, he warned the Government cannot “completely shield” people from the rising cost of living.

But Ms Sturgeon suggested actions such as removing VAT from energy bills, increasing social security benefits and offering direct support to low-income households could be taken by the UK Government.

She said: “We’ve seen other governments across Europe take much more action, and of course at the start of the pandemic, we saw a scale of response that was necessary to help people at that point.

“That’s the scale of response that we need to see from Boris Johnson and [Chancellor] Rishi Sunak now.

“Stop talking about it, stop letting us hear the words about it, and let us see the action.”