Some of the poorest people in the UK will "simply starve or freeze", as a result of rocketing energy prices, consumer expert Martin Lewis has warned, as he urged Rishi Sunak to take action in his spring statement.

Lewis said energy bills for an average household, already set to rise to £1,971 in April, could hit £3,000 in October, when the regulator Ofgem next sets the price cap. "That's my conservative guess: not the worst case," he said...

"When you start to have absolute poverty... then I think you have to get to the point where you have to question what the impact on wider society is, because you know that extreme poverty causes civil unrest," he said...

The chancellor announced a package of measures last month to soften the blow of surging energy costs, including a £150 council tax rebate for homes in bands A to D, and a £200 discount on bills in October, which will be repaid with higher bills in future years.

Sunak is holding the line against making that scheme more generous when he gives his spring statement on 23 March. Lewis - who has been critical of the £200 rebate, which he calls a "loan-not-loan" - urged him to go further, given the renewed increase in prices since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which will feed into the October energy price cap....

Lewis... argued that the chancellor's first priority must be "those people who will simply starve or freeze because of this. And that is not exaggeration".