Emergency budget plea over cost of living

THE MP for Rochdale has called on the government to act now in the face of the spiralling cost of living.

Tony Lloyd, Labour MP for Rochdale, (pictured right) has called on the government to introduce an emergency budget to help tackle the crisis.

Labour claims that families in Rochdale and across the country will fork out an extra £10bn on petrol, compared to this time last year.

Last month, as part of the Spring Statement, Chancellor Rishi Sunak introduced a number of measures ‘to give families further help with the cost of living’.

This included reducing fuel duty on petrol and diesel by 5p per litre for the next year and a £5 billion income tax cut from 2024.

However Tony Lloyd said further help is needed.

He said: “This is a savage extra cost for people in Rochdale.”

“The Conservative government needs to set out an emergency budget to tackle its cost of living crisis, and support Labour’s call to put money back in the pockets of working people.

“Labour’s plan would help households through this crisis with up to £600 cut off energy bills, funded by a one-off windfall tax on the booming profits of oil and gas producers.

“We would turbocharge our transition to clean transport so never again are the British people left so exposed to unstable foreign oil.”

Labour say their measures would prioritise five measures including a one-off windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas producers, ramp up home insulation, scrap the unfair National Insurance hike, and provide support for struggling businesses.

Delivering the Spring Statement, last month Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “This statement puts billions back into the pockets of people across the UK and delivers the biggest net cut to personal taxes in over a quarter of a century.

“Like our actions against Russia, I have been able to do this because of our strong economy and the difficult but responsible decisions I have had to make to rebuild our finances following the pandemic.

“Cutting taxes means people have immediate help with the rising cost of living, businesses have better conditions to invest and grow tomorrow, and people keep more of what they earn for years to come.”