RISHI Sunak and Boris Johnson had to be “dragged kicking and screaming” to take action on the rising cost of living “at the last minute”, Labour has said.

Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds also said there was a “frustrating” lack of measures by the Tory Government to tackle the causes of long-term price rises, not just the symptoms.

“It seems that this Government, they tend to be dragged kicking and screaming to action at the last minute,” the Oxford East MP told Sky News.

Appearing later on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, she added: “The really frustrating thing is yes, we’ve finally seen some action from the Government on the symptoms of the cost-of-living crisis… but we’re not seeing any action on the causes.”

The former shadow chancellor welcomed the new windfall tax announced by the Chancellor on Thursday but said Labour had been calling for such a measure for “five months”.

She denied being embarrassed that the Tory version was more generous than Labour’s.

BBC presenter Clive Myrie said the Government had offered the worst-off families £1,200 to help with rising costs, as opposed to Labour’s proposed £600.

“Are you embarrassed that actually the Conservatives are way more generous than you would have been?” he asked.

Ms Dodds insisted Labour’s policies, including a home-insulation programme that would cut household bills every year, offered longer-term support and not just an emergency fix.

She said: “They (the Tories) also haven’t taken action to grow our economy.

“Labour’s saying we need to buy, make and sell more in our country.

“Why is that important? Because we’ve had lower growth under Conservative-led governments than under Labour-led, it’s a big problem.”

Richard Walker, managing director of the Iceland supermarket chain, said Mr Sunak had “stepped up” and “pulled the right levers” to help struggling families.

He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge he thought ministers were doing a “good job,” despite revealing later in the programme some of Iceland’s customers were “disappearing into food banks”.

Cashiers at the supermarket, which serves “some of the poorer demographics”, had also been asked by some shoppers to alert them when the price of their shopping hit a set price, such as £40, so they could abandon the rest of their items at the checkout, he said.

“There is a tonne of stuff I would like him (Mr Sunak) to do for business, I don’t know how he is going to afford it or we are all going to pay for it but, I think at the moment they are doing a good job,” Mr Walker said.

The UK Government last week bowed to months of pressure to help households facing soaring bills by announcing a temporary levy on energy company profits.

Under Mr Sunak’s plan, almost all of the 8million most vulnerable households could receive at least £1,200 of support, including a previously announced £150 council tax rebate.

The measures include a one-off £650 payment to low-income households on benefits, paid in two instalments in July and the autumn, at a cost of £5.4billion.

Mr Sunak said £5bn of the package would be paid for by a levy on the profits of oil and gas giants, and around £10bn will be covered by extra borrowing.

He told MPs the package was worth £15bn, but officials later conceded there was a hidden £6bn cost to the announcement, taking it to £21bn.

That is because over the next five years the original £200 rebate for energy bills, which was announced in February and doubled and turned into a £400 grant by the Chancellor on Thursday, will no longer be paid back by consumers as originally planned.

The package, worth around 1.5 per cent of UK GDP, has been criticised by some Tory MPs for “throwing red meat to socialists” and threatening investment in the energy sector.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith said big spending and tax hikes, instead of traditional tax cuts and small government, had given the Tory party an “enormous identity problem”.

He told the paper: “Getting growth going is the priority. We have to avoid recession and to do that we have to lower taxes and get people spending.

“Conservatives believe in lower taxes, leaving people with more of their own money because they make the best choices. Unless we get back to this approach and cut taxes in the autumn budget we are in real trouble.”

He said that after raising National Insurance in a breach of a 2019 manifesto commitment, the Tories risked getting a reputation for being a high tax, big state party.

“I don’t just think we have a bit of an identity problem, we have a massive identity problem.”