Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have thus far resisted calls from both senior Conservatives and opposition parties to ditch plans to raise National Insurance rates from April in order to fund extra health spending.
The Prime Minister and the Chancellor both committed to imposing the 1.25 percentage point hike in a joint article in The Sunday Times, published at the weekend, but Johnson has separately signalled that support could be coming down the line to help consumers with soaring energy bills.
Ofwat, the UK's energy regulator, is expected to announce the steepest-ever rise in the energy price cap later this week - a move widely expected to push energy bills for millions of households to around £2,000. The cap is scheduled to rise in the Spring, potentially increasing bills by 50 per cent, according to predictions.
This follows six months of record high prices in the energy market, triggered by the global gas crisis. Consumers are now paying over...