Rishi Sunak presented a £21 billion
package yesterday to help families cope
with the cost of living and provoked a
cabinet backlash over plans for a
windfall tax to help pay for it.
Every household in the country will
receive £400 to help reduce the cost of
their gas and electricity bills while a
further eight million lower-income
homes will be given additional pay-
ments of £650.
Pensioners will also receive a top-up
of their annual £300 winter fuel pay-
ment in November while six million
people who receive disability benefits
will be given a one-off payment of £
in September.
Owners of second homes will receive
the £400 payment for every property
where they pay energy bills.
The measures, which were broadly
welcomed by Conservative MPs and
economists, will lead to some house-
holds being given as much as £1,
worth of support in response to a sharp
rise in energy bills. The payments
equate to about £700 per household.
The plan to fund the giveaway with a
new £5 billion windfall levy on oil and
gas companies was criticised by some
cabinet ministers, who warned that it
would damage long-term investment
in Britain.
Companies such as BP and Shell will
face an additional 25 per cent tax on
their profits until December 2025
unless they use the money to invest in
new North Sea exploration projects.
Sunak is also planning to extend the tax
to include the profits made by electri-
Metropolitan Police will charge him
when he returns to the UK, either
voluntarily or through extradition
proceedings.
Detectives opened an investigation
in 2017 after several complaints were
made during the rapid progress of the
#MeToo movement, when the Holly-
wood mogul Harvey Weinstein was
implicated in sex crimes.
Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS
special crime division, said the charges
had been authorised after prosecutors
reviewed the Met’s file of evidence.
Spacey, who stepped down from the
Old Vic two years before the complain-
ants came forward, is accused of sexual
assaults in London and Gloucester-shire. He will also be charged with a
fifth offence of causing one man to
“engage in penetrative sexual activity
without consent”.
The actor has kept a low profile since
the allegations were made public. Last
week a trailer was released for Peter
Five Eight, his first film role in five years.
Spacey’s representatives did not reply
to requests for comment last night.
Yesterday Spacey appeared in a court
in New York City in connection with a
civil action filed by Anthony Rapp, an
actor who has accused the star of
assaulting him at a party in the 1980s
when Rapp was a teenager. Spacey
denies the allegations.
Charges blight comeback, page 7Steven Swinford Political Editor
Oliver Wright Policy Editor
Sister act Princess Margaret and the Queen as young girls at Balmoral in 1939. The footage is being broadcast by the BBC
as part of a documentary that includes previously unseen home movie images. Young Queen plays for the cameras, page 5Friday May 27 2022 | thetimes.co.uk | No 73794 2G £2.20 £1.45 to subscribers(based on 7 Day Print Pack)Bricks
&Mortar
Your 12-page
property guidep
Times2 Pullout
How true is the
new Top Gun?
Tories split
on tax and
spending
bonanza
Sunak announces £21bn to help with rising bills
city generators, which could bring in a
further £4 billion.
The Times understands that Kwasi
Kwarteng, the business secretary,
remains opposed to a windfall tax in
principle. He welcomed Sunak’s plans
to provide relief for companies that
invested but told allies he was particu-
larly concerned by BP’s announcement
that it was reviewing its plans to invest
in the North Sea.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit oppor-
tunities minister, also raised concerns
in a cabinet call yesterday. He suggest-
ed that the package would be better
funded by reducing government
spending on infrastructure projects.
A number of other cabinet ministers
are also concerned about the measures,
which come after ministers claimed for
months that a windfall tax would dam-
age the economy.
Speaking in the Commons, Sunak
said that the government would not
“sit idly by” while households faced a
cost of living crisis so severe that they
might “never recover”. He said the gov-
ernment’s spending plans, which will
lead to almost every household on ben-
efits receiving £1,200 in support, were
twice as generous as those put forward
by Labour.
He argued that the windfall tax
would raise more than twice as much as
Labour’s proposals and that the govern-
ment’s decision to change course was a
sign of strength, not weakness.
One cabinet minister opposed to the
plans said yesterday: “The politics of
this is just so bad. We voted against it,
we marched the whole party up the hill
and are now taking them back down
Continued on page 4, col 3Spacey faces UK sex assault charges
Fiona Hamilton Crime EditorThe Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey
will be charged with four sexual
assaults against three men, prosecutors
said last night.
Spacey, 62, is accused of attacking the
men between 2005 and 2013 when he
was artistic director of the Old Vic
theatre in London. The Crown Prose-
cution Service (CPS) has authorised
the charges, although they have not
been formally made.
Spacey, who won two Academy
awards for his film roles in American
Beauty and The Usual Suspects, and who
starred in the Netflix series House Of
Cards, is in the United States. TheROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/BBCIN THE NEWS
BBC4 to move online
The BBC4 television channel
will be moved online as
part of a £500 million savings
plan by the corporation
after the licence fee was
frozen. Page 6Gene therapy boost
Scientists have made “exciting
progress” towards a new gene
therapy that could
revolutionise the treatment of
serious brain injuries, strokes
and multiple sclerosis. Page 14Heard ‘death threats’
The actress Amber Heard said
she received death threats
online during the libel trial
brought by Johnny Depp.
Closing arguments in the trial
will be heard today. Page 17Russians advance
Fighting in the eastern
Donbas has reached its
fiercest level yet, Ukraine said,
as Russian troops pushed
deeper into the region from
several directions. Page 30RFU overhaul
Senior RFU officials are
discussing proposals that
would prevent the next
England rugby head coach
wielding as much power as
Eddie Jones. Page 70y(7HB7E2*OTSKPT( |||+$!=