With inflation expected to soar above 13% in October, the energy price cap expected to jump and recession forecast by the end of the year, economic policy has become the defining issue of the Conservative leadership campaign. A row broke out at the weekend after Ms Truss told the Financial Times she planned to cut taxes instead of handouts. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 2:47 p.m. Hopes are divided on the cost of living That prompted a swift rebuke from Mr Sunak, who said it was “simply wrong to block further immediate support” for struggling families this winter. Ms Truss’ supporters later told Sky News her comments had been “misconstrued”. Penny Mordaunt said: “What he has, I think, rightly questioned is the wisdom of taking large sums of money out of people’s pockets in taxes and then giving some of it back in increasingly complex ways.” In other developments, former Labor Prime Minister Gordon Brown made his second intervention in as many days. Mr Brown, himself a former chancellor, is calling for the COBRA emergency committee to meet in “standing session” during the current crisis. It also calls for an urgent recall of parliament unless Boris Johnson and the two Tory leadership candidates can agree an emergency budget in the coming days. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 1:48 Tax cut proposals are not “coming close” Writing in the Daily Mirror, Brown said: “Even if Boris Johnson has gone on holiday, his MPs will have to negotiate hard to buy new supplies of oil and gas from other countries and will have to urgently build the extra storage capacity which we currently have. lack of.” And he warned that some of the tax cuts proposed throughout the leadership race “will not benefit those who are really poor.” At the weekend, a report commissioned by Mr Brown warned that some low-income families are up to £1,600 a year worse off as a result of the cost of living crisis after a triple hit to their incomes – even after government support is taken into account . While working-age households on universal credit and other means-tested benefits get up to £1,200 extra help, poverty expert Professor Donald Hirsch said these measures have been overshadowed. Read more: Sunak vows to fight low-achieving university degrees Truss speech that broke campaigners’ hounding What have Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss promised for the country? Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:30 Mordaunt: Truss ‘hasn’t ruled out all future help’ Tory MP Damian Hinds, one of Mr Sunak’s supporters, admitted the existing package was not enough in these “extremely difficult times”. He told Sky News: “Things have gotten worse even since it came in in terms of forecasting energy bills… and [Mr Sunak’s] it was clear that more may be needed and he is prepared to do so as required.” Research recently released by the Labor Party shows that £1 in every £5 spent by pensioners this winter will go on energy bills – and the “fantastic tax cuts” proposed by the Tory leadership will not benefit the elderly. Gordon Brown will be interviewed live on Sky News Breakfast at 7.30am. this morning.