The opposition Labour Party has stolen a march on the Government by announcing that were it to be in power, it would freeze the energy cap for six months.

While the two candidates to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister have spoken in very general terms about plans to help consumers as the cost-of-living crisis escalates, this is the first solid and practical solution that has been suggested.

The opposition leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has suggested that the freezing of the cap could be funded by a windfall tax on energy firms who have made record profits as prices have risen.

Now, whoever wins the Conservative Party leadership election is facing a dilemma, since if they adopt such a scheme, they will face accusations of not having sufficient imagination to produce such a proposal.

This week will see both employment data and the inflation report for July published.