Boris Johnson says he cannot ‘magic away’ pressure on Brits’ cost of living.

Ministers are under pressure to do more to help struggling households hit by soaring prices, soaring energy bills and tax hikes

Boris Johnson has said he can’t “wipe away” the pressure on the cost of living as he faces mounting calls to help struggling Britons.

The Prime Minister said he understood that “many, many people are facing a very difficult time” but reiterated his pandemic mantra that his government would “put our arms around the people”.

Ministers are under pressure to do more to help struggling households hit by soaring prices, soaring energy bills and tax hikes.

Visiting a factory in Powys, Wales, he said: “I’m not going to pretend that we can magic away every single expense that people will incur as a result of a global rise in energy prices.

“But don’t doubt that this will happen, we will get people through.

“We will use the firepower we have built to put our arms around the people just as we have done during the pandemic.”

Mr Johnson said Britain needed to prop up its energy supplies to avoid future spikes caused by volatility in global supplies.

“You have to make sure we don’t run into problems like this again and it was the short-termism of previous Labor governments that meant we didn’t have reliable energy supplies,” he said.

“I care a lot about the crisis now, but what we also need to avoid are future crises and future spikes in energy costs.

“It’s crazy that this country is feeding electricity from the continent, from France.

“Crazy if we have our own hydrocarbons that we keep taking them from (Vladimir) Putin’s Russia.”

The prime minister and Rishi Sunak have resisted calls for an emergency budget to deal with the cost-of-living crisis.

But some Tory MPs are pushing for more aid to Britain, with speculation rampant in Westminster over what the Chancellor might do next.

Mr Sunak admitted to business leaders this week that the “next few months will be tough” after inflation surged to 9%.

He hasn’t ruled out an unexpected tax on oil and gas giants, saying that “not an option is off the table” unless companies increase investment “soon”.

But there are disagreements in government over the idea.

Asked about the idea, Tory Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “I am not commenting on what the Chancellor will do, that is his business and his budget.

“All I’m saying is that there’s this treasure trove of stores that you can just loot if you feel like that’s not true.”