Reality bites After all the talk of tax cuts , a cold truth awaits Liz Truss

For months, everyone in government had known that last Friday was energy cap day, and at 7am the bad news duly dropped.

- Toby Helm and Jon Henley

Phones pinged as the nation woke to Ofgem’s confirmation that typical gas and electricity bills were to rise by a frightening 80%.

Millions of people would be unable to cope, said charities. Even those on low or middle earnings who had some savings could see them entirely wiped out. It was a full-on national crisis, albeit long predicted.

Consumer champion Martin Lewis tore around central London giving breathless interviews, starting on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme at 7.30am. Lewis appeared on 11 separate outlets before 2pm, raging at government failure to act on his warnings, first issued back in March.

But while Lewis was everywhere, and Labour’s shadow ministers piled in unopposed, the government was nowhere. Where, news producers asked, was the energy minister Greg Hands? Or indeed any other minister ? Prime minister Boris Johnson, back from his second summer holiday, or the chancellor , Nadhim Zahawi?

With the government absent, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) released its own analysis showing that energy bills would outstrip many people’s incomes to the point where paying them would become “fantasy”. It was, the JRF made clear, terrifying.

“In all my years, I haven’t doublechecked a piece of analysis as much as this one because it is so staggering, it feels incorrect,” said Peter Matejic, the foundation’s chief analyst.