LABOUR demanded a government U-turn on fuel bills today to support working families as the cost of living spirals out of control.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the financial assistance pledged by the government to help families pay fuel bills as “a total mess.”

Sir Keir demanded a Treasury “U-turn,” saying that the big gamble behind the government’s current policy “was that energy costs would drop quickly after a short spike. That bet now looks certain to fail.”

In reply, Boris Johnson announced that he would set out an energy independence plan in the “course of the next few days” as there was a “need to meet the long-term impact of the energy price spike.”

As Home Secretary Priti Patel faces mounting criticism of her handling of the Ukrainian refugee crisis, one Briton, Michael Felton, from Cheshire, told of the struggle to get his 83-year-old mother-in-law out of the war-torn country.

Mr Felton said: “I am truly lost for words at how to describe the help our government is giving.

“It’s easy for Priti Patel to say what good work she’s doing, but it amounts to nothing.”

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps acknowledged that there were “lessons to be learnt” from Britain’s response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion.

He added that 760 visas have now been granted, with 22,000 applications “on their way through.”

Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast: “With 6,000 appointments a day available now, you should see the processing rate increase.”

But shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It just beggars belief that people are being asked to do this when they have fled a war zone, when they have had to leave everything behind, when they have been risking life and limb in the face of Russian bombardment.”

Mr Shapps also defended the government’s decision to site a new visa processing centre in the northern French city of Lille, rather than in Calais.

“We do not want to see this mixed up with the wider issue of people-traffickers and criminal gangs in Calais, so we don’t want to attract people to Calais without having the paperwork resolved in the first place before they get there,” he said.