Martin Lewis said the minister’s advice to those struggling to afford food amid the cost of living crisis was “patronizing and difficult”.
Environment Secretary George Justis said Wednesday morning that shoppers should choose brands of value in supermarkets to “keep and manage their home budgets.”
Mr Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, said it was foolish to offer it to low-income people who no longer know how to shop cheaply and do so.
Speaking to LBC’s Andrew Marr about Mr Justis’ comments, he said: “What’s wrong is the concept that the lowest-income people, who choose whether to freeze or starve, don’t know this and don’t they do this, these are the bulls ***.
“The advice is perfectly reasonable, if you go shopping in a supermarket and buy the most expensive brands and you have to reduce, then reduce one or two levels of the brand.
“But the idea that this is a panacea for the working poor and the non-working poor in this country who do not have enough income, I do not know, this is seen as patronizing and difficult.”
Mr Justis made remarks about shopping at Sky News, as the latest figures show that store prices have risen 2.7% from last year – the highest inflation rate in more than a decade – as food prices fall. rise especially high.
The contraction in household finances is expected to worsen, with the consumer price index for inflation expected to reach a 40-year high of 8.7% in the last three months of the year, according to the Office of Budget Responsibility.
Mr Lewis said there were “material numbers in absolute despair” due to rising costs and the situation could not be remedied by ordinary means.
Justis appeared in Sky News on Wednesday
(PA)
He added: “The usual tools we have no longer work because the costs are higher than the revenue, no matter what you do and this leads to a very simple decision, we need to increase revenue.
Asked by Mr Mar what measures the government should take into account, he proposed a “social energy tariff” with a “new price cap specifically for people who have never been able to take advantage of the market”.
He added: “The way we help people is that we either take less money out of their pockets or put more money in their pockets, and that’s not rocket science. The question is, how do we pay for it? “
Mr. Mar asked, “Did Boris Johnson understand?”
Mr Lewis replied: “Ironically, Boris Johnson is probably hoping for a crisis in the cost of living … As an instinctive populist politician, Boris Johnson may be the one who refrains from saying ‘we need to do more’.
The Prime Minister today acknowledged that the United Kingdom was going through a “difficult period” due to the cost of living, but insisted that the economy was in better shape than in the 1980s or 1990s.
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