Tory party is too busy picking Boris Johnson's replacement to deal with cost-of-living crisis

The UK Government is working up a fresh package of cost-of-living support, but nothing will happen until there’s a new prime minister.

This will see the incoming leader finally tackle the crisis by seeing a range of options, just not until September 5.

Waiting until then is viewed by many MPs from across the parties as a “disaster”, with one telling me “a delay will literally kill people, the poorest will die over this”.

Current ministers insist this is “absolutely” right, with Liz Truss backer Simon Clarke quite predictably saying any “un-costed policies” should be avoided, which saves his candidate from having to have any.

Rishi Sunak is the only candidate so far with measures on cost-of-living.

Confronted over the seriousness of the crisis at a hustings in Darlington, the foreign secretary showed zero willingness to engage now.

Asked if she would sit down with Boris Johnson and leadership challenger Rishi Sunak to come up with something now, Ms Truss said there was already a Chancellor and a “proper constitution” in place.

Mr Sunak said he would be up for the meeting, something considerably easier to agree to when you aren’t going to win, especially when his conditions were Ms Truss changes her approach completely.

According to Cornwall Insight, an energy consultancy, bills could reach more than £4,200 per year for the average household in the three months from the start of January. They are currently £1,971.

Ms Truss want to remove policy costs from bills. That would save around £160 at most and is just not going to be enough.

A new leader starting in September will have one month to form a plan and implement it, and forecasts are getting worse by the week.

It is clear this is also no longer a Westminster bubble issue, or one of playing politics.

On Good Morning Britain, host Richard Madeley confronted education secretary James Cleverly, telling him: "I haven’t heard you say anything at all other than ‘oh, well we’ll get to that in the autumn when we have a winner’.

This is spilling over into daytime television and things are only going to get worse.

Everyone knows something has to be done, and the sooner the candidates admit this, the better it will be for everyone.