TORY ministers must take “urgent action to prevent a poverty time-bomb going off” this autumn, the Big Issue warned today.

The magazine joined former prime minister Gordon Brown’s new “anti-poverty coalition” to highlight the plight of low-income families ahead of the next rise in the energy price cap, which is expected to see annual bills top £3,000 in October.

The ex-Labour leader told the publication, which raises funds to fight homelessness and for other social causes, that millions of people are “standing on the edge of a financial precipice.”