Read Kate’s latest column for the Shields Gazette:
Prices have risen by more than 200%, inflation has risen to a record 40 year high and wages have fallen at sharpest rate on record and now the energy price cap is set to double in January, reaching an eye-watering average of £4,200 per year, putting more than half of households in fuel poverty.
People are struggling to cope with this cost of living crisis, with food prices rising – bread up 16% and pasta up a huge 50% leaving people no longer just choosing between heating and eating, but unable to do either – reliant on foodbanks and worried about putting the heating on heading into the winter months thinking how on earth they are going to financially survive.
Yet where are the Tory Government?
People are suffering and the Government are missing in action, with Johnson on his second holiday in as many weeks and two Tory leadership candidates more focussed on tearing strips off each other in public debates focusing on how many tax breaks to give to the rich than offering any real solutions to this crisis.
We can’t continue making working people pay whatever the big energy company’s demand.
It cost £2.2bn just to bail out Bulb Energy. Britain could nationalise the top five energy companies for only £2.8bn.
It isn’t cost that stops the government from nationalising it’s a political choice to continue letting UK energy companies make £6 million profit an hour – whilst people cannot afford to pay their bills.
People on the lowest incomes having to bear the brunt of these whopping price rises, alongside sky-high food and petrol prices, is beyond disgraceful – and isn’t happening anywhere else in Europe.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Things could – and should – be better for working-class people across this country. And that’s why we need everybody out together, campaigning for a better deal.
It’s time to say – enough is enough.
Labour’s plan to save households £1,000 this winter and invest in sustainable British energy to bring bills down in the long-term is a direct response to the national economic emergency that is leaving families fearing for the future and would have an immediate impact – helping people get through the winter whilst providing the foundations for a stronger, more secure economy.
We’ve got incredible foodbanks in the Borough such as Hebburn Helps and Bede’s Helping Hands and more across the wider region. I can’t speak highly enough of the work they do, day-in-day-out, to combat the profoundly negative impact twelve years of Tory Governments, they will be needed more than ever as this Government continues to fail the people of this country – but it remains a disgrace that in one of the richest countries in the world we are normalising millions of people relying on foodbanks.
It is a disgrace that this Tory Government have forced people into this position in the first place. We simply cannot afford more of the same.
My office roadshows are continuing throughout the summer, and I would urge anyone needing help or advice to come along or to get in touch with me [email protected]
