Gordon Brown calls for an immediate emergency budget

In an intervention made in the Observer, the former prime minister said the risk of not doing so could condemn “millions of vulnerable and blameless children and pensioners to a winter of dire poverty”. 

He added that a “financial timebomb” is set to explode from families in October as a second round of fuel price rises in six months will send shockwaves through every household and push millions over the edge. 

Energy prices are expected to hit more than £3,000 a year in October, with energy market researcher Cornwall Insight stating that it predicts energy bills will remain above this figure until at least 2024. 

According to Brown, this will mean 50% of children will be in families that have to forgo material necessities. Additionally, for the poorest 10% of families, food and fuel could take up the majority of weekly outlays after housing costs. 

He added: “The reason the poverty problem is worsening so fast is the unravelling of the June budget, where ministers not only underestimated the coming year’s average energy price rise by around £500, but announced flat rate payments that, by taking no account of family size or special needs, did least to compensate larger families and the disabled. 

“So, while the £650 payment to universal credit claimants amounted to an extra £13 a week for a single person, it was worth only £2.60 a week each for a couple with three children - not enough to cover soaring fuel bills, far less the rising costs of essentials needed by a growing family. 

“For generations, the welfare state has been there to take the shame out of need.” 

Brown’s intervention also follows forecasts from the Bank of England that inflation will hit 13% in October, which will likely push the UK economy into a recession.