Parliament could also resume on Wednesday – two days after world leaders gathered at Westminster Abbey for the late monarch’s funeral – as official business returns to what Downing Street described as “more normal”. No 10 says no legislation needs to be passed to introduce the energy price freeze which, from October 1, will cap average annual household bills at £2,500 by 2024. But the new prime minister won the Tory leadership race by promising to cut taxes by around £30 billion, reversing the rise in national insurance and scrapping a planned rise in corporation tax. Ms Truss downgraded her planned emergency budget, which had been signed in for next week, to a “fiscal event” to avoid scrutiny by the Office for Budget Responsibility. He is expected to fly to New York for the meeting of UN leaders as early as Monday afternoon, within hours of the funeral, returning to the UK late Wednesday or early Thursday. This will allow the mini-Budget to take place on Thursday next week, before parliament breaks up again for Labor and Conservative conferences. “We still plan to present a budget event this month,” the prime minister’s spokesman told reporters, adding that it would not be presented during Labor’s conference week, which starts on September 25. The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, is also under intense pressure to reveal the cost of the energy price freeze – something the government faced criticism for failing to do last week. The more than £100bn bill will be met through much higher government borrowing after Mrs Truss rejected Labor calls for a windfall tax boost on energy companies’ excess profits. Some legislation may be needed to push the business support package forward, but there is no date yet for that. In addition, plans to rescue the NHS from its deepest crisis were due to be unveiled this week, but this has been postponed due to the national period of mourning. The spokesman declined to comment on the surprise defeat of Russian forces by Ukraine in the east of the country or whether there had been a fresh call for military aid as mourning continues. But the government will meet Thursday’s deadline to respond to the EU’s seven legal actions against the UK for failing to implement border controls agreed in the Northern Ireland protocol. The crisis is approaching another turning point after the EU reactivated infringement proceedings over the bill currently before parliament – the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill – which would see the protocol dismantled. Ms Truss must decide whether to agree to talks or ask for more time to respond to the legal threat, having insisted she will not back down on the bill. The prime minister has backed away from suggestions she will escalate the row by triggering Article 16 of the protocol, but the government has launched its own legal action over the block that prevents Britain from participating in Horizon and other EU science programmes.
