Liz Truss is the UK’s new prime minister, and Vladimir Putin has all but cut off the gas supply to Europe.
In the UK, where 85 per cent of homes are heated by gas central heating, and 40-50 per cent of the country’s electricity is gas-generated, soaring European demand for the fossil fuel and the resulting sky-high energy bills mean Ms Truss’s first job as PM is to intervene in the increasingly dysfunctional energy market as millions face winter hardship.
And it’s not only households that will suffer, with many pubs, restaurants and other businesses warning they face closure with bills on course to rise sevenfold in some cases.
