IT will, said Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, be “a very difficult winter” for some families. William Hague, the former Foreign Secretary and Richmond MP, agreed. It will be “more than tricky”, he said.

Is Government policy going to continue to make it trickier still and even more difficult for the poorest by removing £20-a-week from them from October 6?

The Government explains that its temporary rise in Universal Credit, which runs out at the beginning of next month, was there to help people over the “economic shock and financial disruption” of the pandemic.

But the extraordinary spike in gas prices, combined with rising inflation, is still part of the “economic shock and financial disruption” caused by the pandemic.

The Government is withdrawing its support too soon. It will plunge 840,000 people into poverty, at least 40 per cent of whom are in some form of work and about 300,000 of whom are children. In the short term, these people will be forced to use foodbanks; in the longer term, all taxpayers will pick up bigger bills to pay for the societal problems that go with poverty.

Mr Kwarteng acted commendably fast to get the carbon dioxide production going again yesterday. Interestingly, his solution involved Government money going to the company involved to help it over the “economic shock and financial disruption”. If companies still need help, why doesn’t the Government think that the poorest people don’t still need help?