Thursday May 26 2022 | thetimes.co.uk | No 73793Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, he
declared: “I’m going to shoot an ele-
mentary school.”
It was the second most deadly school
shooting in the United States, coming a
decade after a gunman killed 26 stu-
dents and staff at Sandy Hook Elemen-
tary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Ramos had previously threatened
classmates at Uvalde High School
before he started dropping out of
classes over recent months and had
mutilated his own face, friends said.
Abbott, who was confronted at his
press conference by the former Texas
congressman Beto O’Rourke over his
record on gun laws, said Ramos was not
known to have mental health problems.
Among the 19 child victims was thedaughter of a deputy sheriff. Three offi-
cers were among 17 people injured,
most of whom were children. Ramos’s
grandmother, Celia Martinez, 66, who
was shot in the face and called the
police, was clinging to life yesterday.
Ramos was shot dead after moving
into an adjoining classroom.
Abbott rejected criticism that lax gun
laws had enabled the killings. President
Biden said last night that he would visit
Uvalde and again urged Congress to
pass tougher gun control laws. “The
idea that an 18-year-old can... buy
weapons of war, designed to kill, is just
wrong... It’s time for action,” he said.
‘The Devil came into school’, pages 12-
Tighter gun laws are near impossible to
achieve, leading article, page 33Rishi Sunak will announce plans today
to give every household in Britain hun-
dreds of pounds off their energy bills to
help with the cost-of-living crisis.
The chancellor will abandon plans
for a “rebate and clawback scheme”,
which would have given people a £
discount on their energy bills from
October.
Energy companies would then have
recouped the money in the form of
higher bills over the next five years,
which led to criticism that the measure
was in effect a loan.
Sunak will instead convert the loan
into a grant to be distributed by energy
companies, with no requirement for
households to pay the money back.
Two government sources said the
value of the discount could be in-
creased to as much as £400, which
would cost more than £10 billion.
The plans will form part of a “mix and
match” package, with several measures
to help the most vulnerable households
cope with a sharp rise in energy bills
and inflation.
Ministers have been considering fur-
ther cuts to council tax bills — beyond
the £150 for bands A to D already
announced — and increasing benefits.
However, they have ruled out restoring
the £20 rise in universal credit amid
concerns that any increase would
become permanent.
Sunak and Boris Johnson have for
now rejected plans to cut VAT on
Steven Swinford Political Editor
A defiant Boris Johnson claimed he had
been “vindicated” over lockdown par-
ties in Whitehall, despite a damning re-
port that laid bare a culture of rule-
breaking in Downing Street.
Sue Gray, a senior civil servant,
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Gray report vindicates me over No 10 parties, claims Johnson
Oliver Wright, Steven Swinford
Chris Smyth, Henry Zeffman
George Grylls
revealed that the prime minister’s most
senior aides were involved in the plan-
ning of parties that involved drunken-
ness, fighting, karaoke and vomiting.
Her report said there had been
“multiple examples of a lack of respect
and poor treatment” of cleaning and
security staff who tried to raise
concerns. She condemned “failures of
leadership” at the heart of government,for which there was “no excuse”, and
said Johnson must bear responsibility.
The prime minister said he was
“appalled by some of the behaviour”
outlined in the report and apologised
for the rule-breaking, adding that he
was “humbled” by months of revela-
tions about the affair. He said, though,
that it had been appropriate to hold
leaving events for Downing Street staffduring lockdown and that it was essen-
tial for him to attend to thank officials
and boost morale. “I take full responsi-
bility for everything that took place on
my watch,” he said.
He later told Conservative MPs the
scandal had given a distorted impres-
sion of Downing Street and urged them
to move on from “Westminster issues”.
The Times has been told that a seniorofficial in No 10 had been given advance
sight of excerpts of the report on
Tuesday.
A government source said that they
had been shown it because they had to
deal with staff welfare matters and that
no changes had either been requested
or made.
Tory MPs mostly held back from
Continued on page 2, col 3Amerie Jo Garza, ten, was awarded an achievement certificate hours before being shot dead in the school attack in TexasTeen gunman killed pupils one by one
Jacqui Goddard UvaldeA teenage gunman who killed 19 pupils
and two teachers at a Texas school
engaged in a shootout with police
before barricading himself in a
classroom and picking off his victims.
Salvador Ramos bought two AR-
assault weapons and 375 rounds of
ammunition after turning 18 this
month. He went on a killing spree after
announcing his intentions in three
Facebook messages, according to Greg
Abbott, the state governor.
“I’m going to shoot my grandmoth-
er,” Ramos wrote in the first. Minutes
later he added: “I shot my grandmoth-
er.” In his third message, written less
than 15 minutes before he burst intoEnergy bill
handouts
to ease the
big squeeze
energy and fuel. A decision on general
tax cuts, such as VAT or income tax, will
be delayed until the autumn budget.
Most people will receive huge rises in
their bills, even with the additional
support. Ofgem, the energy regulator,
has said that household energy bills will
increase by a further £800 in October,
to an average of £2,800. This, on top of
an increase imposed last month, will
mean that average bills have risen by
119 per cent in a year.
Sunak will confirm that the package
will be funded in part by a windfall tax
on the excess profits of oil and gas
companies, which is likely to come into
effect in the autumn. The companies
will be taxed less if they increase invest-
ment in Britain. “They’ll pay less if they
invest more,” a government source said.
The measures will be “temporary
and targeted”, according to another
government source, as ministers are
determined to avoid a significant
increase in the size of the state in
response to what they regard as a short-
term crisis.
Johnson resisted calls for a windfall
tax for months but changed his position
after energy companies announced
record profits and Bernard Looney,
BP’s chief executive, suggested that
such a levy would not deter his com-
pany from investing in Britain.
“He’s come round to the idea that the
oil and gas market is not normal and
that these are outsize profits,” the
source said. Sunak will attempt to argue
Continued on page 2, col 5Grants will save households hundreds of pounds